Everything we see….

Exhibition at Solstice Art centre, Navan, 2014

Everything we see… is an installation inspired by René Magritte’s painting The Month of the Grape Harvest in which a group of bowler hatted men gaze stoically into a room. The objective here is to transform the group into a virtual choir performing Magritte’s own words. Text selected from interviews and writings is spoken by digitally manipulated voices and nothing is what it seems. All the voices are generated from a single male and female source, they are obviously not the voices of the people we see. Mismatching of face and voice is used to suggest gender ambivalence, while reverb and panning contribute to the general confusion. Spoken words are set against the rise and fall of a melodic line, creating a haunting and unsettling experience. This work is a piece of visual deception, a physical manifestation of the textual meaning. Sound by Rhona Clarke.

While Everything we see… names a specific work in the exhibition, it is also the overall title of the show. Additional works made with other Irish composers include Beyond Recall: an installation of wire coils and video, with sound by Jane O’ Leary. This piece considers cycles of recollection as lines of thought shift between clarity and enmeshment. In the foyer gallery a display of drawings extends the linear preoccupations characteristic of this work.