MAEVE RENDLE : Gretta's Gabriel, Gabriel's Gretta

About

For her first solo show at The International 3, Maeve Rendle presents the two screen installation Gretta’s Gabriel, Gabriel’s Gretta. Comprising the films Gretta’s Gabriel and Gabriel’s Gretta, the work takes its inspiration from James Joyce’s short story The Dead, and John Huston’s film adaption of the same. The two main characters in The Dead are husband and wife Gabriel and Gretta.

The narrative focuses on a jolly, warming, gossip-filled Christmas gathering and as the guests leave, a male tenor can be heard singing an old Irish song The Lass of Aughrim. Upon hearing the tenor singing, Gretta becomes transfixed. Throughout the evening Gabriel has observed his wife with an increasing sense of love and lust, but as his wife’s mood is shattered, he feels her attention is lost and he is unable to regain it.

Using this couple’s emotional discrepancy as an inspiration, Gretta’s Gabriel, Gabriel’s Gretta attempts to illuminate the solitude of being unable to communicate fully the truth of feelings. The failure to communicate and the resulting misunderstandings lead to the realisation that one is reliant on oneself to find a way to move forward.

Rendle sees the making of art as a device that enables her to be honest, accurate and uncompromising in her communications with other people. Consequently, she seeks both to discover and to depict an insight into life through the means of art.

In her recent work she employs a specific method such as using a laborious task, capturing through visual documentation, the unravelling thinking, working, and reciprocating essence of the subject.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a commissioned text and a limited edition art work. The text will be written by Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith who is a critic and occasional curator who teaches at University College Dublin.

Maeve Rendle was born in London in 1980 and lives and works in Manchester. She studied at Nottingham Trent University (2003) and at Manchester School of Art (2005). Recent exhibitions and projects include a solo exhibition at BLACK, Salford (2014), Innsbruck International (2013), The Way We Do Art Now, Tanya Leighton, Berlin, Unframe, a solo exhibition at Grundy Gallery, Blackpool (2010), Unresolved, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester and Radical Obsolescence, an editions project by Manchester School of Art in collaboration with Ceri Hand Gallery (2009). Maeve Rendle was longlisted for the Northern Art Prize in 2008. In January 2015, Maeve will be participating with The International 3 as part of The International 3's contribution to Dialogues a section within Art Projects / London Art Fair curated by Anna Colin.
 
For more information contact Paulette Terry Brien : ptb@international3.com / Tel: 00 44 (0) 7981 389 591
The International 3 is supported by its founder Patrons, Robert Devereux, Jo and Allan Melzack, Dr. Sezgin Ismail, Bob and Hazel Miller, Martyn and Valerie Torevell and Founder Artist Patron, Rachel Goodyear as well as those that wish to remain anonymous.

Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.