Journeys Into A Bright World by Emer O'Brien

About

FERREIRA PROJECTS is pleased to present Journeys Into A Bright World, Emer O'Brien's debut Solo Exhibition in London. The exhibition incorporates photography, film, light sculpture and a soundscape pertaining to The Horse as a chosen subject and as point of departure for O'Brien. Her new body of work explores notions of control and domination in particular man's relationship with nature. Conceptual in her approach O'Brien is innovative and experimental, creating visually powerful objects with film, the hand made mark as discernible as the mechanical. Since 2003, she has been incrementally developing a distinct body of work that defies categorisation, but the work can be understood through certain enduring themes and references to domestication. Domestication is gradual, a process of trial and error that occurs slowly. It refers to the hereditary reorganization of wild animals and plants into domestic and cultivated forms according to the interests of people. The process in its strictest sense refers to the initial stage of human mastery, provision and control whereby species are bred for tractability, companionship or ornamental rather than for survival. Of the work presented, ‘The Listed Screen' 2007 creates a charged, physical space in which the viewer is confronted by a horse in motion. The horse is perhaps the most iconic animal in art and is a dominant hallmark of O'Brien. Not as a formal attribute but as a signifier and mesmerising dimension which suggests the extent to which O'Brien draws connections between human and animal kingdoms, emphasizing the primal qualities in each. Throughout this ethereal film the viewer is engulfed by a cadenced, pulsating violence that diminishes and intensifies with an unsettling rhythm. In ‘Society of the Horse' 2008 O'Brien creates an equally charged space with bold still photography. Emer O'Brien's work has been exhibited widely in the UK and internationally, including the Whitechapel Gallery, London, 2004 and The National Gallery, Prague, 2005. In 2007 she was short listed for the New Contemporaries. FERREIRA PROJECTS will be accompanying the exhibition with a limited edition, numbered and signed book, featuring specially commissioned writing and a critical discussion.