Blaise Drummond, Catalina, 2007, Öl und Collage auf Leinwand, 162 x 213 cm ©Galerie Conrads, Duesseldorf-Berlin
Blaise Drummond
The Bright Hours
Galerie Conrads, Duesseldorf
September 7 through October 20, 2007
Preview : friday, september 7, 2007, 6-9 pm
The exhibition title makes reference to Le Corbusier's
Villa Savoye in the small French town of Poissy-sur-Seine near
Paris that is also known as the Villa Les Heures Claires.
The Bright Hours
The works of Blaise Drummond are experimental set-ups in the
field of fine arts. Over the immaculate white of the canvas,
his repertoire of set pieces are (re)distributed to create constantly
changing arrangements. These are fragments of the utopias of
the 19th and 20th century, of Romantic yearnings for nature and
enlightened -Modernity; these polarities confront each other
and thus create new connections.
His works always oscillate between the failure of this Romantic
idea and the discovery of a new beginning.
Influenced by Post-Minimalist concepts, Drummond cites the
reduced, abstract language of the 1960s and 1970s and transforms
this into a semantic system that now belongs to our general culture.
Drummond refers to these roots using architecture by Le Corbusier
and van der Rohe, for example, seeing them as locations of idealised
human existence, which he longingly evokes in his pictures and
simultaneously presents as an artificial construct.
In his pictures, the architectural icons of Modernity come together
with drippings or decalcomania in plant form, profane objects
or fragments of nature.
Every element appears to float in an unsteady balance on the
white of the canvas as if it had found its ideal location, if
only for a moment. Then the artist permits the viewer to expose
this completely staged harmony as a illusionary world.
Drummond's examination of the past does not produce any nostalgic
déjà-vu; instead, it directs our gaze towards the
present through the mirror of our history.
Die Arbeiten von Blaise Drummond sind Versuchsanordnungen
im Feld der Bildenden Kunst. Auf dem makellosen Weiß der
Leinwand breitet er sein Repertoire an Versatzstücken in
immer neuen Anordnungen aus. Es sind Fragmente unserer gesellschaftlichen
Utopien des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts, romantische Natursehnsucht
und aufgeklärte Moderne, die in ihrer Gegensätzlichkeit
miteinander konfrontiert werden und neue Verbindungen eingehen.
Seine Arbeiten oszillieren dabei immer zwischen einem Scheitern
dieser romantischen Idee und der Entdeckung eines Neubeginns.
Unter dem Einfluss post-minimalistischer Konzepte zitiert Drummond
die reduziert abstrakte Formensprache der 60er und 70er Jahre
und transformiert sie in ein semantisches System, das Teil unserer
Alltagskultur geworden ist. Auf deren Wurzeln verweist er mit
den Architekturen von Le Corbusier, van der Rohe u.a. als Orte
idealisierter menschlicher Existenz, die der Künstler in
seinen Bildern sehnsüchtig beschwört und zugleich als
künstliches Konstrukt vorführt.
Die Architekturikonen der Moderne treffen in den Bildern auf
vegetabile Formen des Drippings oder der Décalcomanie,
profane Gegenstände oder Naturfragmente.
Alle Elemente scheinen in einem labilen Gleichgewicht auf dem
Weiß der Leinwand zu schweben, so als ob sie für einen
kurzen Moment ihren idealen Platz gefunden hätten
bis der Künstler dem Betrachter erlaubt, die vollkommen
erscheinende Harmonie als Scheinwelt zu entlarven.
Die Beschäftigung mit der Vergangenheit führt bei Blaise
Drummond nicht zu einem nostalgischen Déjà-vu,
sondern sie lenkt den Blick auf unsere Gegenwart im Spiegel unserer
Geschichte.
Der Ausstellungstitel bezieht sich auf die Villa Savoye von
Le Corbusier in dem kleinen französischen Ort Poissy-sur-Seine
bei Paris, die auch Villa Les Heures Claires genannt wird.
Blaise Drummond
Born in Liverpool in 1967, lives in County Longford, Ireland
1998 MA Fine Art, Chelsea College of Art, London
1994 BA Fine Art & History of Art (1st Class), National College
of Art and Design, Dublin
1989 MA Philosophy and Classical Art, University of Edinburgh
solo exhibitions (selection)
2006 Musee de l'Abbaye Sainte-Croix, France
2006 Butler Gallery, Kilkenny Castle, Kilkenny
2006 Galerie Loevenbruck, Paris
2006 Perugi artecontemporanea, Padua
2005 Adventures in Contentment, Aliceday, Brussels
2005 Western Parkway, Blancpain Stepczynski, Geneva
2005 It's So Hard to be a Saint in the City, Rubicon Gallery,
Dublin
2004 Garden City, Galerie Loevenbruck, Paris
2004 Art Brussels, Belgium (solo with Rubicon Gallery)
2003 What to Look for in Summer, Rubicon Gallery, Dublin
2002 Stedelijk Museum, Aalst, Belgium
2000 City v Country, Rubicon Gallery, Dublin
2000 A Poetic Geography of Five Continents, Castlefield Gallery,
Manchester
1998 Untitled Monochrome Series, Andrew Mummery, London
1997 The Natural Order of Things, Rubicon Gallery, Dublin
1996 A Short Discourse on Nature and Culture, Crawford Municipal
Art Gallery, Cork
1994 From the Frontier to Here, Carroll Gallery, Longford
Collections
The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
The British Council
The British Government Collection
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
Deutsche Bank/Morgan Grenfell
Allied Irish Bank
Environmental Protection Agency, First National Building Society
Dublin Institute of Technology
School of Architecture, UCD
Limerick City Gallery of Art
Fonds Cantonal D'Art Contemporain, Geneve (FCAC)
Office of Public Works
group exhibitions (selection)
2006 Pulse Art Fair, New York, with Rubicon Gallery
2006 Déjà 5 Ans Seulement, Galerie Loevenbruck,
Paris
2006 Galerie Conrads, Düsseldorf
2006 Mary Goldman Gallery, Los Angeles
2005 De Natura, Centre d'Art de Meymac, France
2005 Out of Place Works on Paper, Mary Goldman Gallery,
Los Angeles,
2005 Happy Holiday, Rubicon Gallery Dublin
2005 Est-ce bien de l'Art, Abbaye du Ronceray, Angers, France
2005 A Moment in Time, Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin
2005 The Vernacular, Standpoint Gallery, London
2005 Contemporary Art from Ireland, European Central Bank, Frankfurt
2005 West, RHA Gallaher Gallery, Dublin
2004 John Moores 23, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
2004 Amnesty International, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
2002 No Object, No Subject, No Matter , Irish Museum of Modern
Art, Dublin
2001 East International, Norwich Gallery
2001 The Garden, Model Arts Centre, Sligo
2001 Tiger Tiger, Fenton Gallery, Cork
2001 A Focus on Drawing, Limerick City Gallery, Crawford, Temple
Bar Gallery (Touring)
2000 ARTfutures, Contemporary Arts Society, London
2000 NowHere, Rubicon Gallery, Dublin
2000 Public Arts Laboratory, Touring Exhibition, U.K.
1999 John Moores 21, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
1999 Utopias, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin
1999 Away from Home, Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool
1999 Starting a Collection, Art First, London
1998 Expanded View, Ikon Gallery Touring Show
1998 Perspective, Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast
1998 Return to Sender, Touring Exhibition of Irish Art in Australia
Publications
2006 Cahiers de l'Abbaye Sainte-Croix, Les Sables d'Olonne exhibition
catalogue
2005 By the Shores of Lake Eden, Published by Rubicon Gallery
2004 Some Mild Peril, Castlefield Gallery Publications, Manchester
2000 A Portable Hedge and Other Modest Proposals, Blaise Drummond,
Portland, Maine.
Published in an edition of 150 copies for the exhibition A Poetic
Geography of Five Continents at the Castlefield Gallery, Manchester.
Public Arts Laboratory, CD-ROM, Liverpool, 2000
1996 A Short Discourse on Nature and Culture, Blaise Drummond,
Dublin, 1996.
Published in an edition of 150 copies.
