200 words: on Rivane Neuenschwander at IMMA
Posted on | December 7, 2011 | No Comments
Rivane Neuenschwander, I Wish Your Wish
Whether in a series of glue rings left to materialise as they get grubby on the gallery floor or in her film The Tenant, in which a soap bubble silently “explores” an empty house, Neuenschwander’s work is more about quiet observation than big statements.
Her ex-voto paintings of empty rooms turn a traditional form of narrative painting into a modern meditation on absence, while her hole-punch collages, One Thousand and One Possible Nights, are carefully calculated to appear accidentally sublime.
She often takes a collaborative approach and although her collection of Involuntary Sculptures made by others from napkins and matchbooks during bar conversations amount to so much table detritus, she does make two catchy calls for further audience participation.
I Wish Your Wish (above) invites gallery-goers to remove a wish printed on a ribbon and add their own in its place, while visitors who describe their first love to a police sketch artist may find their old flame added to future versions of the show.
Rivane Neuenschwander – A Day Like Any Other is at Irish Museum of Modern Art until 29 January 2012.
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