Always Now
CLAIRE HALPIN
The Talbot Gallery is delighted to show the latest
paintings of artist Claire Halpin This is her long
awaited first solo exhibition in Dublin.
Halpins lasted body of work titled Always Now deals
with the concept of communal grief. The human
experience of grief encountered after any individual
experience of loss. The belief that there is a
common language between these experiences. In
dealing with this concept it also encompasses other
tangents of meaning such as memory, collective
memory, familiarity, nostalgia, cliché, regret,
security, fragility.
Halpin uses family photographs to explore the idea
of loss and how we deal with loss through memory
and collective memory. The artist is interested in
how the photo is used as a trigger to remembering
past events, and how these photographs are
invested with souvenir qualities of nostalgia. Taking
imagery from direct reference to photographs and
reproducing it in painted form, it becomes very
obviously a constructed image and this contributes
to the intended meaning. The image differs from
the original photograph and links to the concept of
constructed memory, how we remember things past
and try to capture experience, degrees of
separation from the original experience. The
process of creating the paintings, the blurring
between painting and photography, the very
physicality of how the medium is laid down is
important to the overall understanding of the work.
It is important for the Artist that the viewer interacts
with the work and that the work is accessible to the
viewer. In this way she uses imagery that is
recognisable, familiar and allows the viewer a ‘way
in’ to understanding the work, a starting point from
which they can take their own interpretation and
relate to their own memories and experiences.
Halpin is a member of the Artists Panel at IMMA
2003 – 2008; she is also a member of The Stoney
Batter Artist Studios.
Claire Halpin has exhibited widely both
nationally and internationally and her work is
included in many public and private
collections including: D.I.T Art Collection,
OPW, Allied Irish Bank, Blackrock Hospice
Foundation, Smirnoff Collection, The Four
Seasons Hotel Collection, Clarion Hotels and
Dundalk County Council Collection. Most
recent commissions have been for the Carton
House Hotel Co. Kildare and St. Kilians Senior
School, Co.Dublin.
CLAIRE HALPIN
The Talbot Gallery is delighted to show the latest
paintings of artist Claire Halpin This is her long
awaited first solo exhibition in Dublin.
Halpins lasted body of work titled Always Now deals
with the concept of communal grief. The human
experience of grief encountered after any individual
experience of loss. The belief that there is a
common language between these experiences. In
dealing with this concept it also encompasses other
tangents of meaning such as memory, collective
memory, familiarity, nostalgia, cliché, regret,
security, fragility.
Halpin uses family photographs to explore the idea
of loss and how we deal with loss through memory
and collective memory. The artist is interested in
how the photo is used as a trigger to remembering
past events, and how these photographs are
invested with souvenir qualities of nostalgia. Taking
imagery from direct reference to photographs and
reproducing it in painted form, it becomes very
obviously a constructed image and this contributes
to the intended meaning. The image differs from
the original photograph and links to the concept of
constructed memory, how we remember things past
and try to capture experience, degrees of
separation from the original experience. The
process of creating the paintings, the blurring
between painting and photography, the very
physicality of how the medium is laid down is
important to the overall understanding of the work.
It is important for the Artist that the viewer interacts
with the work and that the work is accessible to the
viewer. In this way she uses imagery that is
recognisable, familiar and allows the viewer a ‘way
in’ to understanding the work, a starting point from
which they can take their own interpretation and
relate to their own memories and experiences.
Halpin is a member of the Artists Panel at IMMA
2003 – 2008; she is also a member of The Stoney
Batter Artist Studios.
Claire Halpin has exhibited widely both
nationally and internationally and her work is
included in many public and private
collections including: D.I.T Art Collection,
OPW, Allied Irish Bank, Blackrock Hospice
Foundation, Smirnoff Collection, The Four
Seasons Hotel Collection, Clarion Hotels and
Dundalk County Council Collection. Most
recent commissions have been for the Carton
House Hotel Co. Kildare and St. Kilians Senior
School, Co.Dublin.
Click on images above to enlarge
Shoreline I oil, phototransfer on canvas 60 X 60 cm 2008