Drawing for Moore is a site of inquiry where the artist's subjective experience questions how we perceive and respond to our environment both externally and internally. Inspired by her research into animal communications, display and camouflage systems where light, rhythm, pattern and repetition come into play. Animals respond to their environments in ways such as competing for pockets of light to be seen or evolving to become almost invisible in their natural environment.
For the past two years, Ciara Moore has limited herself to working with the concept and color black. The artist’s fascination with black stems from the intimate relationship of the color to light. It is the very intensity of light which allows the viewer to see how color reflects or absorbs, depending on its origin, its matte, gloss, metallic or velvet qualities.
Moore’s process creates an intricate aesthetic experience through the juxtaposition of two black pigments of varying opacity and texture on a page, the angle of a fold or how it behaves with the nature of paper selected. The reduction of color and composition down to core essentials, black and white/darkness and light, opens up the visual complexity and dynamic of the compositional plane. The works have a sculptural quality as the creases, contours and folds of the paper play against the black, textured, surface. The effects of changes in light and our position in relation to the work interrupt or alter our perception of it thereby creating a sense of visual rhythm within the work.
The works explore themes of movement and energy in nature such as tectonic plates, landslides, wild fires and Dark Matter. Some of the Black Unfolding drawings incorporate charcoal made after collecting the burnt wood from sites of wild fires in the Los Angeles area earlier this year. The charred remains are broken up and pounded into powder releasing clouds of dust which are collected through a fine gauze and used as pigment.
The artist’s fascination with the color black extends to our relationship to blackness and darkness throughout history, in nature, art and The Universe.
Also on view is a selection of works created by manipulating the flow of water and black ink on waterproof paper to tease out organic web-like forms and ink pools.
Born in Ireland in 1966, Ciara Moore graduated with an MA in painting from the National College of Art in Dublin. She has exhibited in Ireland, UK, Canada, Crete, Australia and Shanghai. She has been awarded artist’s residencies at University of Tasmania, Monash Melbourne and Artspace Sydney, Australia, the Amazon in Brazil and Contemporary Art Museum, Crete. She has been resident in California since 2016.
Born Dublin, Ireland 1966
EDUCATION
2000 BA National College of Art & Design, Dublin, Ireland.
2007 MA Art in the Contemporary World. National College of Art & Design Dublin, Ireland.
COMMISSIONS, AWARDS & RESIDENCIES
The Red Stable Summer School Residency -Mutual research and learning between artistic and ecological practices. Dublin
Glasgow Arts South East Artist in Residency
Digital Media Artist in Residence, Firestation Artist Studios, Dublin
Mamori Art Lab, Amazon, Brazil
National Sculpture Factory; Australian Residency Award,University of Tasmania & Artspace, SydneyPepinieres Map European grant awarded residency, RCA Crete
Video Installation Echoes commissioned by Kerry County Council
Camouflage commissioned by the Arts Council of Ireland
CAP Foundation Studio award and stipend, Leeson Close, Dublin
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
JET Solo exhibition, Keystone Art Gallery, Los AngelesSentience, Kurb Gallery, Perth, Australia
Lighthouse Relay, Folkstone Fringe Festival, Kent Xuhui Arts Museum, Shanghai, China
Nature and Human Nature conference, British Psychological Society, Oxford 24/7 The Glucksman Gallery, Cork.
The Ivory Tower Project. Triskel Arts Centre, Cork
6x2x2 The Guesthouse Artists Collective, Cork,
Repetitions, Plimsoll Gallery, Hobart, Tasmania
The Power of a Negative Remains Between Us, thisisnotashop,
Peripheral Visions Granary Theatre, Cork,
Locus Suspectus: Where the Hidden Comes to Light, Ormeau Baths, Belfast / Truck Gallery of Contemporary Art, Calgary
Echoes Crawford Municipal Art Gallery
Locus Cosmos Rethymnon Centre of Contemporary Art, Crete
