https://irishcountrymagazine.ie/10-irish-homeware-designers-you-need-to-know-395605/amp/
Excess Baggage: a constellation of works on paper and objects. Esther O’Kelly and Chris Lewis-Jones
Excess Baggage is a record of Chris Lewis-Jones and Esther O’Kelly’s conversations about mythology, folklore, culture and identity.
During the course of their collaboration the artists became attuned to the mythology/ies that shape our views of the world and our places within it. Acting within an ecology in which apparently opposing difference produces entropic transformation, the artists became excited by the ways in which each creative interaction generated a new context. From the start, virtuosic drawing underpinned their collaboration. Undertaken in Esther’s studio and via correspondence, their approach to mark making was visceral and spontaneous, drawing on the unconscious as both source and inspiration.
The act of collaborative making, in which each thing leads rapidly to the next, through a process of intuitive iteration, resulted in what Esther called ‘imagery riffing’. Thus, riffing on both the familiar and the unfamiliar, drawing on the mythic narratives prevalent in both cultures, the artists were reminded of the trauma bond that exists between Britain and Ireland, the long and troubled history of colonisation and its associated grand narrative/s, which has generated baggage that we have yet to deal with (hence the title of the collaboration/exhibition). This troubled history permeates the work, as does the poetic presence of the literary and the mythological. Excess Baggage is a response to the context/s in which it is placed: the gallery, Belfast and the ESP collaboration. Bound up with notions of personal and collective memory, the need to survive, to rebuild and to defend, in these precarious post-war pre-Brexit times, the exhibition invites us to unpack (at least some of our) our baggage.
Chris Lewis-Jones and Esther O’ Kelly share an interest in exploring the specificity of geographical context/s. Each week (since their initial meeting at Primary) one of the artists has sent the other a series of artworks to which s/he has responded, in kind. Initially these works tended to be expressionistic paintings and drawings of cultural archetypes, thus, a visual conversation has been taking place between the two artists and the socio-geographical contexts in which they are each located. However, since working together in Belfast(1) they have found themselves exploring notions of cultural identity using masks. ‘What masks are we wearing?’ is a question they have been asking themselves (several times a day)! This represents a departure for both artists as neither has explored the mask before. Their exploration is influenced by Lyotard’s theory of ‘mythic discourse’(2) and by the murals that surround Vault studios in East Belfast, many of which feature masked combatants.
In addition to this painterly/expressive body of work, they have also been exploring the notion of ‘cultural baggage’ using words and assemblage. These approaches are quite different and the artists are not sure how, or even if, they will bring them together to complete their collaboration. In the meantime, they are very much enjoying travelling hopefully together (which is what collaboration should be about)!
Note: (1) Including a day in Esther’s studio in East Belfast when they were surrounded by preparations for an impromptu Orange march (2) The concept of national identity, as it has been passed down to us, is an example of what Lyotard calls the ‘narrative discourse’ (The Post Modern Condition, 1974); the story of a (social or ethnic) group which, simply by its telling, reinforces/legitimises the dominant values of itself. The group, which legitimises itself through ‘the chanting of a myth,’ becomes ‘bonded’. The myth requires no authorisation or legitimisation, other than itself. ‘This is who we are’, says the group, ‘this is where we came from…this is what we do’, and ‘this is how it is’.
The Expanded Studio Project is a 6 month collaborative initiative between Belfast based artists and artists based @weareprimary Nottingham. The aim of the project is to develop external relationships, exchange ideas and explore different modes of collaboration.
Opening August 22nd 6pm @pssquaredbelfast
Esther O'Kelly named among top ten Influencer in Irish Home Design
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Space To Create.
Expanded Studios Project
Expanded Studio Project
23 – 31 August 2019
Opening: Thursday, 22 August, 6-8pm at PS² - Belfast
Participating artists
Alex Brunt; Declan Proctor; Esther O’Kelly; Zara Lyness; Gerard Carson; Sinéad Bhreathnach-Cashell; Robin Price; Jackie Wylie; Thomas Wells; Heather Dornan Wilson; Sinead McKeever; Grace McMurray; Barry Mulholland; Hannah McBride; Chris Lewis Jones; Roger Suckling; Bex Gamble; Bruce Asbestos; Christine Stevens; Frank Abbot; Georgina Barney; Ines Garcia, Louisa Chambers; Marek Tobolewski; Mik Godley; Paul Webber; Pete Ellis; Rhiannon Jones; Sarah Tutt
The presentation at PS² is not an exhibition of finished work, rather a showcase of peer outcomes created through collective ideas, conversations and self-directed activities.
On 28 September a symposium will take place in Primary Studios, Nottingham, where the full group of artists will reconvene to discuss the project, its challenges and possible further development.
The Expanded Studio Project is a 6 month collaborative initiative between Belfast based artists and artists based at Primary Studios, Nottingham. The aim of the project is to develop external relationships, exchange ideas and explore different modes of collaboration.
The project is based on a pilot programme which ran between Primary Studios in Nottingham and Wysing Arts Centre in Cambridge in 2014-15 where artists engaged in a period of dialogue and exchange over a four-month period.
The challenge this time was to initiate and sustain collaboration across further geographical distance between England and Northern Ireland. In addition the Belfast participants are based across several different artists’ studios. (These include QSS- Queen Street Studios-, FLAX Studios, Array Studios, Creative Exchange Artists’ Studios, Pollen Studios and Vault studios.
Through planned visits to each other’s cities and continued conversations and emails, artists began either ‘partnering up’ or discussing ways that they could come together in groups to find a way to work together through continued communication and find a means to respond to each other’s ideas.
@expandedstudioproject2019
Frottage of Esthers Ladder by Chris Lewis Jones, Artist based at Primary Nottingham.
The first visit of the Belfast based artists to Nottingham will take place between 23- 26 April.
HIT THE NORTH 2018
I was delighted to be asked back to paint at HTN18. I returned to paint on North Street alongside some of the most internationally star studded line up to date.
From Colombia to Australia and Portadown to Poleglass, street artists and muralists came to the city on 20th & 21st September to bring their unique brand of colour, flair and creativity to radically transform the Northside of the city centre.
There wasd international depth to this year’s programme featuring artists from Belgium (Dzia), Italy (Alice Pasquini), Holland (Nol) Australia (Danni Simpson), Switzerland (Sonic Oner), Colombia (Sancho MDN & Visual) joined by artists from the UK and for the first time this year Tape That from Berlin. Tape That installed their artwork at the Bullitt Hotel on 18th & 19th September before moving over to Blaklist for the main festival on 20th & 21st September.
This year's line up included Annatomix, Tape That, Rogue-one (graffiti), Danni Simpson Art, Sonic oner, Dzia & Sons, Alice Pasquini, Conzo Throb, Ciaran Glöbel, Sancho Mdn, Visual, Michael Nol, KVLR, Friz, JMK ART, DMC, Emic, Verz Art, FGB , Rob Hilken - Visual Artist, Leo Boyd & Laura Nelson, Holly Pereira Illustration, Wee Nuls, Gary Real RoweDoc, Morgy, Conor McClure Illustration, Voms, Shuk, ADW artist, Caoilfhionn Hanton Art, Kathrina Rupit - Kinmx, Rask, Aches, Emmalene Art, MARK_one_SZO, Vanessa Power, Shane O Malley Art, Novice, Mack, Ominus Omin, Vents Dublin, Stay Lo, So Fly, SUBSET & Esther O'Kelly Artist,
Hit the North Street Art Festival was established by Seedhead Arts and the Community Arts Partnership in 2013 as a response to vacant space along North Street and to transform the streets of the Cathedral Quarter. It has become one of the biggest street art festivals in Ireland and attracts artists from across Europe.
@campbellphotography
Images by @campbellphotography
Image by Chris Copeland
Esther O'Kelly named in 10 ten influencer of Irish Homeware Design.
Great to see art getting its due as a key player in interior design.
Vault Artist Studio Launch
I'm proud to call myself a founding member & trustee of this ground breaking collective based in East Belfast.
Vault Artist Studios is a group of artists working across many disciplines. We are visual artists, musicians, puppeteers, photographers, film-makers, bee-keepers and writers. Vault Artists Studios are a community driven, not for profit arts charity with the mission to provide affordable art studios for creatives working across a wide variety of art forms. 88 artists have established the groundbreaking co-operative under one roof in East Belfast. Calling oursleves Vault Artist Studios, we have moved into the old Belfast Metropolitan College building in Tower Street.
The initiative is a reprise for the group who were formerly known as the Belfast Bankers after we were offered the temporary use of the empty Ulster Bank at the Holywood Arches last year.
It began with a mysterious email... In Late 2016, founding member Adam Turkington received the kind of out-of-the-blue email you might just scroll past but which contained an extraordinarily generous offer: would he be able to make use of an old Ulster Bank building in East Belfast for a year?
23 artists came together, united by the twin ideas of building a community of artists, and making as much happen in one year as we possibly could. There would be monthly meetings, everyone would actively contribute towards the project, we would engage with the local community, we would make great art – and we would see if this could be the beginning of something wonderful.
Our neighbours joined in. Local people came and shared food, gained insight into the secretive working practices of artists, learnt how to play the piano, watched beekeepers in action, listened to live music and shared our vision of placing the arts at the heart of the community.
Now we’re growing...
In a short period of time; Vault Artists studios have become a major contributor to the cultural identity of Belfast and the creative narrative of the city.
https://www.vaultartiststudios.com
Artist Launch at Pigyard
Gorgeously colourful abstract canvases by emerging artist Esther O'Kelly.
In the same way that a flower fragrance or a tune takes us back to a special place and time, the Belfast- based artist uses her paintings to explore familiar memories and experiences, at once universal and personal, of growing up in Rosslare. This is O'Kelly's second one person show at the Pigyard. We have great hopes for her fine art career and viewing is recommended.
Esther O'Kelly and author Cat Hogan, guest speaker at Esther's exhibition of paintings, 'To & Fro in My Dreams', which opened on Friday. Two Wexford artists who share a maritime background.
‘To and fro in my dreams I go’ An exhibition of paintings by Esther O’Kelly at The Pigyard Gallery Wexford.
This exhibition is a collection of paintings about our fragile human state and how we experience life, love and loss. The work is about family, friends and influences as much as it is about the artist herself. We see her making connections from the outset, as we travel back through fragments of her past, The journey beautifully non-linear, an inexplicable series of dreamlike states that gracefully ebb and flow through the parameters of the Artists consciousness. The paintings act as emotional triggers, visual springboards into her past.
Impressions of place are a main feature of the work, remembering childhood laughs, larks and loves with nostalgia. The paintings are synonymous with recollection, a series of beautifully simplistic compositions that signify youthful joy and glee.
‘I’m less interested in the detail of the memory than the joy of it: I want to convey the thrill of accessing a treasure trove of memories buried in my mind, my paintings relive shining moments and act as a respite from every day life. I see them as a joyous celebration of remembering with a touch of heartbreak.’
Esther’s work is romantic and expressively coloured, with forms that seek to capture a memory and evoke a sense of place. The Irish landscape with its mixture of buildings nestling in dramatic rural settings have a strong presence in her work. They may begin as depictions of a place from a memory but during the painting process they take on a life of their own – houses and walkways are painted over but the imprint remains visible, creating an archaeology beneath the painted surface. Colour is an integral element – fine layers of paint are built up and stripped away creating delicate colour passages and textures reminiscent of stone and peeling paint.
‘Painting is a very physical and sensual process for me, I try to keep the painting open to all possibilities, deviations and directions. I like working back and forth between organic and architectural elements, colours and textures that become saturated or atmospheric, marks that whisper or shout. I try to frame the past in different or unexpected ways to challenge how we think about major events in our own time. The paintings tell stories about personal memory, that reframe the past not as a fixed narrative but as a multiplicity of voices layered and faded.’
‘To and fro in my dreams I go’ oozes with powerful memories of a simplistic upbringing, complete with family, friends, love and life in all its magnificent glory.
Esther’s solos show opens June 29th for 3 weeks in The Pigyard Gallery Wexford.
Wardrobe Jam in CS Lewis Square Belfast
I was asked to take part in this community event by Seedhead Arts and East Side Arts.
A group of Artists were each given a wardrobe to paint as part of a day long festival.
Just for one day. The 20th anniversary of the Belfast Agreement as depicted by Esther O’Kelly
‘Keening’
‘Keening is a traditional form of vocal lament for the dead. In Ireland and Scotland it is customary for women to wail or keen at funerals. Keening has also been used as part of civil disobedience and protest.’
‘Keening’ is a collection of paintings informed by my own experience of living in Belfast in the shadow of conflict. Using memory and intuition, the work intends to evoke the everyday spirit of Belfast, to define our sense of place and community. These paintings look beyond the illusion of talks and deals to everyday life. They explore the raw beauty of who we are, our basic need to live in peace, in this place where the violent echoes of our past are still reverberating.
I see The Good Friday Agreement as a vessel that holds the grief of a community in escrow. These paintings explore our fragile human state, how we experience loss and how we haveagreed to place our trust in such a fragile concept as a peace deal. The Good Friday Agreement honours our connection to the past and promises to shape our future, but Stormont now stands as an abandoned house. All the while lives are lived and lost, children have come and gone, family life continues to be sucked into the passage of time and the precious moments we live for are fleeting.
The venue for ‘Keening’ is Joan’s Hair Salon. A place where everyday life takes place, where we laugh, gossip, cry and grieve. A place at the heart of our community, a place to be vulnerable. A place where we reveal the hidden elements below the skin of this place called home.
'Just for One Day'
There’s going to be a lot of familiar and famous talking heads, looking back pensively, giving the ‘I was there’ definitive version of ‘what really happened’ at the signing of the Good Friday Agreement twenty years ago.
We will note the wrinkles and the grey hair and we will see how they have changed, if only in their appearance.
The usual role-call will be called.
But what about artistic responses?
What might an artist create that could ever contain the complexity, horror, and sorrow of over 3600 lives lost from the armed conflict in Northern Ireland?
And what might ten artists create?
In ten locations across Belfast.
And how might we respond to these different framings, after twenty years of the Good Friday Agreement?
This was the seed idea that Susan McEwen and Paul Hutchinson began with: – what could be said that might reframe our shared past and allow us to see a flourishing way forward?
We wanted to be both ambitious and modest.
Ten artists commissioned to create new works, in ten locations across Belfast.
Just for one day.
And that’s what we have assembled for Thursday 12th April.
A bus trip. An art map. Painting. Soundscapes. Physical Theatre. Songs. Research findings. A long poem. Digital Art. Photographs. A film.
Just for one day.
Take three examples.
Take Leonie McDonagh, who will be performing a one-hour physical theatre piece at An Chultúrlann. Entitled Stand and Fall, the artist will see how many times she can fall and rise and fall and rise in 3600 seconds.
How much can we bear to watch?
What will be left at the end of the performance?
Of Leonie?
Of the audience?
Take a room in a disused bank. Neil Foster has set his piece Safe House in this odd, wonderful location.
Neil will be creating an immersive space filled with sound, images, and opportunities to reflect on safe and unsafe pasts, present, future.
Stay for five minutes. Stay for an hour.
Take a special performance of four songs by the incredible Ursula Burns. Her sequence, entitled Being born in Belfast, will include a song that she began twenty years ago and finished this year. How will these songs resonate in the beautiful space of St Patricks Church on the Lower Newtownards Road?
Other venues include a barge, a deconsecrated church, a hair salon, a library, acommunity café.
Other mediums include anthropological research, photography, digital art, a short film, a painting.
The tenth artwork is a specially commissioned art-map which will serve two purposes – locations of the art works and a statement about how we map our multi-storied city.
A fifty-seater bus has also been hired (now fully booked) to take participants on a journey to all of the artworks, culminating at Carlisle Memorial Methodist Church – a huge space that befits the scale of this project.
So here comes the surge of stats and anecdotes.
So here comes the celebrity story-tellers.
A 20th Anniversary
Of a Good Friday Agreement.
And Stormont is empty.
And people are waiting for a change.
How might these ten frames help us to look again at who we are, where we came from, where we might go?
We might see things differently.
Just for one day.
Perhaps for longer.
Maven is located at Maryland Avenue off the Lisburn Road.
Small Business Saturday, Pop Up Shop at Maven.
December 2nd as part of Small Business Saturday, Maven have invited me and my paintings instore for a one off Pop Up Shop. I consider this a huge endorsement.
Maven is Belfast's most exciting furniture and Homeware store, sisters Catherine and Patricia McGinnis have curated a selection of largely Scandinavian and Irish products. With a belief that everyday items should be enhanced by great design and that shopping should be all about the friendliness, Maven is a treasure trove that will make your heart beat a little faster and make you leave with a smile.
Belfast Bankers Group Show
Saturday November 18th our studio take over Framewerk Gallery. Featuring the paintings, sculpture, photography and sound stylings of the Belfast Bankers.
Hit The North, Collaboration.
Hit the North was a great success, full credit to Seedhead Arts for pulling off such a fantastic festival. Over 40 Local and International artists painting the streets of Belfast during Culture Night! what a buzz. I painted a wall on Kent Street, it lasted a few hours before being bombed. While I'm not impressed with the Clandestine tagging of my work, Neuf got there before me, albeit a week after I was first assigned the wall.
Neuf Said.
CAPTURED: Rich, Rugged and Fresh, Goose Lane Gallery, Belfast, Review.
Sincere thanks to Slavka Sverakova who took the time to review our Belfast Bankers Group Show.
Here is a little of what she had to say, full review listed below.
'Esther O’Kelly exhibited four paintings, installed on two walls of a corner. Bachelard infused corners with added poetry, so I am inclined to note each separately and as a group.
the titles suggest that any narrative I may attach to viewing it should not share the same root – one connects to an opera, the other to an ocean . Is it visible? I sense that it does not aim to insist on the title to determine the visual thoughts locked in the hues, tonality and brushstrokes. This painter’s personal palette connects more to art than to observed nature. In the way she positions difference over the whole, however, is responsive to the timing in an opera made of many defines parts clearly delineated, and an ocean as powerful unity of its, mostly hidden, parts. One is open to narrative exploration of differences, the other overwhelms by hiding them under the surface of oneness. A plausible register of possibilities. I cherish the power of both paintings to make visible the moment of a hue asserting its presence without a conflict. The open divided brushstroke accepts the calmer fluency of the others, even when provoked by clashing lines of a bigger shape. But in there is a notable knot: what if it muddles the visual poetry of the whole? One possible outcome is the successful grounding the imagined in the remembered. obse I sense that this painter never holds the memory responsible, preferring invention, fresh opening up to dreaming up relationship among the brushmarks. . A sort of spanner in the works- if the works are expected to tell of a past experience Instead – the paintings evoke an experience of making up playful multiple meanings.'
Opera Festival 120cm x 100cm
'Mighty Ocean Deep' 50 x 70cm
HIT THE NORTH
This year's headliners Nomad Clan, Dan Kitchener and Irony are joined by KVLR, Friz, JMK, Visual Waste, Emic, Verz, Rob Hilkin, Conor McClure, DMC, Tweet, Glen Molloy, Leo Boyd, Jess Tobin, Faigy, Caoilfhionn, Hanton, Lisa Murphy, The Drif (New York), KinMX (Mexico), Iljin, Marka Mix (Southy Africa), Aches, Emma Blake, Artista, Sophie Robson, Voms, ADW, Rask, Cheba, Sil, Le Bas, Easi, Noys, FGB, Esther O’Kelly and Art by Eoin.
And there's more than just live street art. Here's the full timetable for this year's Hit the North Festival
7-24 September - The Hit the North Exhibition - The National
Thursday
4-8pm Live Painting across the Cathedral Quarter.
8-11pm Real Sketchy at the Dirty Onion
A super-sized version of our regular drink and draw night where we'll be projecting your sketches on the side of a building
Friday
2-4pm Hit the North Conference at Community Arts Partnership
Hear the stories and inspiration behind some of the artists painting at this years festival.
4-8pm Live Painting across the Cathedral Quarter.
4-10pm The Big Woolly Wall on North Street
A giant Brick themed yarn-bomb
8pm-late Hit the North Closing Party at Underground Records
with headliner Adesse Versions
AND IT'S ALL FREE
Hit the North is a project of the Community Arts Partnership who work with Seedhead Arts to deliver the project. It is made possible thanks to the support of Becks, Belfast City Council, Arts & Business, Community Relations Council and the Dept of Communities. Hit the North is also only made possible with the support of HSS, Ink Monkey, The Black Box, The Sunflower, Aether & Echo and a long list of artists and individuals.
Image: Campbell Photography
Captured: Rich , Rugged and Fresh. Hosted by Artistslegup
Group Exhibition by members of the Belfast Bankers studio group
Guest curator: Sally O'Dowd
‘Captured: Rich, rugged and fresh – The landscape of Ireland as depicted by three Belfast-based artists’ is a visual art exhibition of paintings and photography selected for their contemporary representation of Ireland’s landscape. Witness seaside vistas of County Wexford, irregularities of a city, and the overwhelming vividness and freshness of the colour green.
The wilds of a raging Irish sea. The graffiti tagged walls of Belfast. A lush forest. These artistic depictions convey the experience and memory of Ireland’s built and natural environments, the human interactions of past and present, and our ever changing earthly surroundings.
The three artists showcasing work are Esther O’Kelly, Jonny McEwen, and Neal Campbell. The exhibition has been curated by Sally O’Dowd. All four are members of Belfast Bankers. This exhibition will make public for the first time new art made in the Belfast Bankers studio this year.
Hit The East
We had an absolute blast painting the alleys of East Belfast this weekend, such a privilege to be involved and in such esteemed company as South African Artist Falko one.
