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PRESS RELEASE FROM REAMONN BYRNE:
Stand at Attention is a
new collection of work by Irish artist Réamonn Byrne. Formations of linear
drawings in ink, pencil and paint on paper resemble groups of documents or
blueprints in that they present distilled information, reduced to line and
accents of paint. Each batch forms a cohesive visual whole, yet the eye lays
focused on a single piece at a time, exploring the individual's minute responses
as attention flutters amongst the frames. These simple structures pose
questions about how narrative is constructed and how we process visual
information.
In this body of work the artist takes this format and turns it on
himself. Members of the Irish Brigade of the American Civil War are depicted
throughout the work, surely heroes in that pivotal time for their new nation.
It is in this posse that the artist places himself introspectively against his
peoples historic endeavors. Ambivalence
becomes evident in this exploration of identity as the artist gnaws at both his
own and the collective psyche.
Memory and its ritualized forms also figure in the work as the
artist plays with the notions of the eulogy and the memorial. The cathartic
nature of such ceremony is echoed through the work as the self struggles to
reconcile with its own ever changing perception of the greater whole.
Réamonn Byrne lives and works in Brooklyn. He is a product of the
Crawford College of Fine Art, Cork, Ireland.
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