glass mirriored dream pillow / MOULDED GLASS :MIRRIORED AND DEFORMED 40x40
objects in kiln cast glass .
Mirriored Glass pillow
:A contaner of dreams 40X40 kiln formed 2010.
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Mary Veale is an Irish artist based in Grenoble. She talks to Grenoble Life’s James Dalrymple about her new exhibition Mutations.
Grenoble Life: Could you tell us a bit about your background and how you came to live in Grenoble.
Mary Veale: I was born in Kilkenny, Ireland; I trained as a nurse and midwife and in neurology initially. After a brief working period in nursing I began my artistic training and completed my diploma foundation studies in Exeter College of Art in 1983.
After that I moved to the north of England and completed my BA in design of glass and ceramics at the University of Sunderland where I was fortunate to work with the master of Swedish design Goran Warff.
After graduation I worked in the setting-up of one of the first artists’ co-operatives in Newcastle-upon-Tyne at 36 Lime Street, Ouseburn Warehouse Workshops. We got awarded the Prince’s Trust Award for innovation in 1987.
After setting up my first workshop I returned to study for my Masters in Fine Arts at the University of Northumberland. The theme of my final Master’s show was based on the Cleveland child abuse crisis. My first daughter was born during this period.
I came to live in Grenoble initially for a sabbatical year in 1991, returning with my husband Daniel Veale working in medical research and respiratory medicine.
GL: You say on the Un certain detachement (UCD) website that your works are inspired in part by “what it means to move cultures,” could you elaborate on this?
Mary: The lack of opportunity to show local artists’ work in Grenoble caused us to set up the co-operative Un certain detachement in 2005. This group was set up by myself, Claude Gazengel and Alain Quercia. Claude Gazengel wrote a text based on her history about living abroad and crossing cultures (she had lived in Barcelona for three years). The group began with the idea of a mobile gallery and hence the Vending Machine Project was born. Now we have 30 international artists from five different countries involved in this international art project; and are using three vending machines. The concept is to make multiples in art and distribute them via a vending machine. The machines can be moved and shown in a variety of places.
My multiple was based on the idea of “displacement“, which could be seen as a mental, physical or metaphysical state. As one moves cultures one has, in certain respects, to become detached from one’s origins.
The idea of glass cast tongues (being cut off or dismembered) may be symbolic of the language problems that I have experienced - notions of fragility and breakability are present in my work. While taking on a new language and culture can be a very enriching experience, it can also be very unsettling; thus the idea of fragility or moulding of glass can be very poignant. When speaking in a foreign tongue sometimes words and meanings get lost or remain unsaid. I like the idea of working on the spaces within the silences. I call these ‘silent spaces” where words are lost or unsaid or become mutated. I have tried to use this idea of lost words or silent spaces in my glass books; which are a work in progress started when I first arrived in Grenoble.
GL: On the UCD website you state that glass can distort and protect. Some of your works feature scrawled or warped messages, while others enclose seemingly organic, even visceral matter. There is a vulnerability to certain works, but the shell or flower-like formations are made from hard materials. Likewise, your artworks seem to be personal, even intimate, but themes of liberty, borders and social exclusion are recurrent. Could you talk about the political dimension to your work and how it relates to the personal?
Mary: I have worked on various themes over the past few years and a lot of my works are through ideas which may have been inspired by literature, poetry, music and current affairs.
I am particularly interested in issues based on being an artist and the role of an artist today in society. Being a mother of three daughters and woman has also marked my work.
GLASS AS MY CHOSEN LANGUAGE
Glass is often my chosen material as I can explore so many concepts and ideas through this material.
Of course a lot of my art work is personal and when I am concerned about a particular issue but as the work develops a universal meaning can be traced also, I hope.
My first work made in Grenoble was with the Ecole De La Paix. I worked on the concept of a glass book about peace entitled the Livre des larmes. This was in 1998 to commemorate the signing of the peace agreement in Northern Ireland. Since this date I continue to add pages, so it’s like a work in progress – as are peace processes in lots of places in the world.
Most of my work is installation-based and may have many diverse media, including paintings, sculpture, light works, video and books.
The theme of liberty is one that I have worked on. I organised a debate on this subject at the Fort Du Murier during the weekend of the Journée nationale du patrimoine in 2007. I invited guest speakers, local politicians and historians and opened the debate to the general public. The theme was: What does the concept of Liberty mean today? This debate was recorded and a video was also made during the debate and I made specific works after this debate.
GL: Tell us about your new show Mutations.
MUTATIONS
Mary: I like this word mutation as it can be so large in its meaning and connotations. It suits my work.
To explore mutation in my work I start with genetic changes that happen in the body, as I interpret scientific images or concepts such as ageing and memory into a visual language.
Mutation is a natural phenomenon in the creative process as marks and gestures constantly alter and change, becoming exposed, hidden or unstable.
Mutable, changeable, unsteady: many of these words find resonance in my work through the use of particular materials such as glass, wax and paint. Through the creative process I am constantly bringing change, instability and alternating form and content through a complex process of looking and seeing.
To be in a state of mutation is often felt by individuals who have become displaced or moved from their origins. Being outside one’s original culture could be a form of mutation particularly as one adapts and assumes another culture with its language and customs – as has been my experience.
My works in this exhibition are from recent paintings and glass works and are based on the theme of mapping the inner body and “landscape”, or topography. I interpret the brain and its complex systems of neuronal pathways through looking and drawing, later to be defined into the language of paint or glass sculptures. The medical imagery I use as a starting point, which then leads to an exploration of wider issues to do with memory and loss.
The philosophical dimension is also present as I try to understand our fears and emotions. The use of glass is a perfect metaphor for all that can be held within, frozen in time. The abstraction and reworking of medical imagery helps me to understand more about how our bodies work and how the inner landscape of our bodies is less of a mystery.
ART AND SCIENCE
Art can make visual many complex scientific concepts in a way which is less mysterious we as we understand the world around us through our actions emotions and reactions. Through this work I am not trying to show any answers but trying to understand for myself a little of how the body functions and changes in certain circumstances.
I am interested in the idea of collaboration between different professions and therefore I worked in the Sleep Laboratories at the CHU Grenoble, looking at sleep studies and making a video recording of this procedure. Often the different areas of science and art have common grounds, especially in neurology. Medical imagery in recent times, such as the MRI scanner, brings a lot of new information to the scientist and also maybe to the artist. We as artists can contribute perhaps by having a different way of looking at a subject. I hope to commence a residency at the new neurological institute here in Grenoble working alongside scientists.
I have works that explore the thought process, memory and memory loss, as my mother was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
GL: You talked earlier about the lack of opportunity to show local artists’ work in Grenoble. Could you talk more about this?
Mary: A lot of artists in Grenoble never get to show their work in the city as it lacks any professional body to help organize a database. Just recently Entre ‘Arts got closed down and it used such a database over 10 years.
The lack of space for artists led me to set up the vending machine project with my colleagues here in Grenoble. There are no studios for artists in Grenoble as was the case in Newcastle. Therefore, the city and local artists lack a cohesive structure to help them continue in their professional careers.
As I was involved in the setting up one of the original co-operatives with other artists in Newcastle, I carry on this idea that artists cannot work in isolation and do need to have proper studios with low rent, as being an artist does not bring a regular income.
I spent three years working on a proposal with a group of artists and architects here in Grenoble to set up studios and a set of workshops for international artists designed for the Le Petit Hall at Bouchayer Viallet. However, commerce won the day and art was not seen as economically viable. I see this as a huge mistake for the city as we see in Lyon how the Biennale D’art brought 165,000 visitors to the city thus bringing a lot of commerce. Therefore art can be an economic venture for a city.
GL: Where can people go to see more of your work at that of your fellow artists?
UCD VENDING MACHINES
www.uncertaindetachement.com
Mary: One of UCD’s vending machines is presently in-situ at the parliament party office of Genevieve Fioraso, 7 rue Voltaire. This exhibition continues until 15th March.
The recycled vending machine is beautifully reconditioned by our sculpture Vincent Gontier and our graphic artist Céline Charles.
The machine contains artists’ multiples made in a variety of media (paintings, video, sculpture, photographs, which are signed unique works from 30 international artists. All the works can be purchased for a very reasonable price.
You must also visit Restaurant Du Petit Lac in St Egreve where Jac the owner has invited 24 or more artists from Grenoble to design a table. All the tables are on display can be eaten off and are really great. This is a project worth seeing and I have a table also there.
Mutations –
an exhibition of recent paintings and glass works by Mary Veale – continues at Moulin Villancourt, Pont de Claix, until 20th March.
tained image /glass fused pillow 2010