Meet the artist: Eilis O’Connell – revealing both the physical and the conceptual aspects to practice
Hardware/Software, the Derry-born sculptor’s latest exhibition opening later this month at the Solomon Gallery, highlights the dual aspects of an artist’s work
Derry-born Eilis O’Connell studied at the Crawford School of Art, Cork – where she received the award for distinction in sculpture in 1977 – and the Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, and is one of Ireland’s most internationally recognised contemporary artists.
In 2018 her outdoor sculptures were shown at E1027, the famous home designed by Eileen Gray in Cap Martin, France. Her first major survey exhibition took place this year at the FE McWilliam Gallery in Armagh.
O’Connell is a founder-director of the National Sculpture Factory in Cork, a former member of the Arts Council of Ireland, and a current member of Aosdána and the Royal Hibernian Academy. On October 26, an exhibition on new sculpture and works on paper by O’Connell will open at the Solomon Gallery, Dublin: the title, Hardware/Software, borrowed by O’Connell from Jack Burnham’s 1974 publication Great Western Salt Works: Essays on the meaning of Post-Formulist Art. It refers to the dual aspects of an artist’s practice: the physical, object-based output and the conceptual, process-led phase of work.
How did your artistic journey begin?
I grew up the eldest of six in a small village on the Derry-Donegal border, a place where nothing much happened – we had to create our own entertainment, and by today’s standards we were feral. My parents were creative and good at making things and encouraged us to draw and paint and be imaginative.
In the 1960s we moved to suburban Cork and I had this longing to learn about art, so I took art classes at the Crawford from the age of 12. When I was about 14 my aunt, who lived in London, brought me to the Tate to see Turner’s paintings of fog on the Thames, and that was inspirational.
Where did the title for your current show come from?
I first came across the phrase Hardware/Software in 1974 in an art book called Great Western Salt Works. Hardware meaning the physical object-based art like painting and sculpture, and software meaning conceptual art, the thinking process from which other less tangible artwork evolves.
To me ‘hardware’ is the sculpture that I make, and ‘software’ is the drawing, painting, photography, the thinking behind the evolution of the sculpture, and I will be showing both.
Artists who have influenced me
Whoever made the Cycladic figures and every prehistoric ring fort and standing stone in Ireland. I am just as influenced by the world around me as I am by other artists like Isamu Noguchi, Robert Smithson, Agnes Martin, Mary Miss and Martin Puryear.
What is your favourite piece of music when you need inspiration?
Kronos Quartet, Pieces of Africa.
I have a collection of . . .
African figures, masks, vessels and Kuba cloths; fossils, rocks, found whale and dolphin bones.
An artist whose work I would collect if I could
Constantin Brâncuși.
A place that means a lot to me, other than my studio
My house near the sea in south-west Kerry.
A place I’d like to visit
The art island of Naoshima in Japan.
In another life I would have been . . .
A dog.
The best piece of advice I ever received
John Hegarty from Fourem Architects advised me to “consolidate what you have” and not add extensions to my very old farmhouse in Kerry. Rooflights add 60 per cent more light than a window.
