Kilkenny Events Guide

Out Of The Marvellous at National Craft Gallery

Out Of The Marvellous Details

“…as the poet, like a master potter, slowly shapes on his word wheel the given clay into a vase, an urn, a bowl and (efffortlessly mixing dulce with utile) glazes it with living colour” (poet Eamonn Grennan on Seamus Heaney’s collection, ‘Human Chain’)

Out of the Marvellous (from Seamus Heaney) is an exhibition of work by some of Ireland’s foremost makers and poets.

Just as the best poetry can create moments of epiphany in the reader, so too can the finest objects stir in the observer feelings of pure emotion and understanding. This show will trace the connections between both art forms, through exploring the work of Sonja Landweer, Seamus Heaney, Angela O’Kelly, Gerard Smyth, Frances Lambe, Joe Hogan, Derek Mahon and others.

“There is a wonderful kinetic energy, a kind of sprung coil, present in the way poets and makers work, and a compelling texture to some of the best examples from both worlds. Manifestations of both art forms allow us ways of looking at the world; these are often wonderful glimpses that can make for epiphanies of meaning and understanding and pure emotion in the observer. I want to explore work by makers who can directly trace some of their work back to poetic influences and makers whose work I admire of course. Language is often a channel to some sort of understanding of the world and objects can also very much provide this too – I’m thinking here a little bit of WG Sebald’s line ‘things know more about us than we know about them’”

Maureen Kennelly, curator

The exhibition is a co-production with Solstice Arts Centre, Navan, where it will tour in January 2013.