Page 32 - Landmarks and Lifeforms

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Manchán Magan, Opening of Landmarks and Lifeforms at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre on 10th March 2017
Mianach is an Irish word meaning the essence of something, the bones, the kernel, the underlying rock. Both artists represented in the Landmarks and Lifeforms exhibition, Frieda Meaney and Danny Osborne, are attracted to the mianach, the core nature of things. And as a result their art is a rooted and reassuring one.
While Eastern cultures have their seers and we in the West have our scientists, occasionally both worlds are fortunate enough to have an artist come through who can navigate the deepest realms of the numinous and the empirical science and help guide us towards a deeper understanding of both.
This is what we get with these two artists, Frieda and Danny, who are so rooted in the Beara Peninsula and so committed to exploring themes and dimensions far bigger than themselves. They have both gone out into the world with open hearts and minds and digested all that is about them - the multi-layered and multi-dimensional wonder of it all - and have condensed it down into a few singular works of creative expression.
Danny’s fin whale bones have a visceral effect. One has an uncanny sense when in their vicinity that part of one’s unconscious is being awakened. Likewise Frieda’s installation I search for Lost Worlds consisting of a film projection with circular etchings of animal, reptile and dinosaur bones could also easily entrap one under its spell.
Both artists create art that feel like they could swallow us whole, like poor Jonah; transporting us elsewhere. Their work is potent and demands to be savoured.....
Manchán Magan