Grá Agus Bás riston print (Crash Ensemble Series)

Title: “Grá Agus Bás”
Medium: Riston print
Dimensions: 70 x 56.3cm

***Exhibited at National Concert Hall, Dublin, Kilkenny Arts Festival, Kilkenny; New Music Dublin, Dublin; Sounds From A Safe Harbour, Cork.***

Description: “Grá agus Bás” (translating to “Love and Death”) is an album written by Donnacha Dennehy (Crash Ensemble’s co-founder) and comprises “Grá agus Bás”, performed by Iarla O'Lionaird and Crash Ensemble, in addition to “That the Night Come”, written for American soprano Dawn Upshaw and Crash Ensemble. The music can be found on Nonesuch Records (2001).
The image here is a riston print made on to fabriano artistico paper stock. The image itself is in fact fifteen years old, a photograph I took of my grandmother’s house after it laid idle for an extended period after she passed away. I liked the symmetry of the two chairs in the image, and how the light alludes to a sense of departure. From the outset I had hoped to have the window area to contain values as close to white as possible, and to see how the midtones and shadows of the interior scene would print, as a result of this over-exposure.

Part of a print series for Crash Ensemble’s 25th anniversary weekend at National Concert Hall, Dublin during December 2022, and exhibited throughout 2023.