WUNDERKAMMER

Mermaid Arts Centre, Co. Wicklow, 5 June – 18 July 2015

Renaissance Wunderkammer were collections of rare, valuable, historically important or unusual objects which were generally compiled by a single person for study and/or entertainment. They were private spaces, created and formed from a deeply held belief that all things were linked to one another through either visible or invisible similarities.

WUNDERKAMMER presents new works including a series of drawings; paintings; a stitched sculptural drawing and Joanna’s own Wunderkammer. This cabinet of curiosity acts as the storage place of ideas and of the materials from which these spring. Her intuitive practice of drawing and redrawing speaks of worlds from a microscopic to a cosmic scale and visualises the unseen interconnectivity and complexity within these worlds.

“Her methodologies demonstrate a contemporary experimental approach to drawing, using a diverse range of materials and methods in an exploration of drawing as a medium, but always doing so in relation to thinking through our existence within a scene – our interrelationship with the physical world around us, the connectivity between all things and matter – as we might imagine exists between the tiniest cells in the human body to the electrons and neutrons making up the farthest of stars.” Cliodhna Shaffrey, from Wunderkammer Essay

Exhibition Publication HERE

Ordered Complexities drawings, 2013-2015, monotype on paper, 46x46cm each. Photo: Paul Tierney

It put its face up to my face so I could see series, 2014-2015, encaustic on panel. Photo: Nicola Webster

It put its face up to my face so I could see series, 2014-2015, encaustic on panel, 15×20.5cm. Photo: Paul Tierney

It put its face up to my face so I could see and Plot series, 2014-2015, encaustic on panel. Photo: Paul Tierney

Plot series, 2015, encaustic on panel, 61x61cm. Photo: Paul Tierney

Between you and me, 2014–2015, thread on soluble fabric, 172x219x124cm. Photo: Paul Tierney

Between you and me, 2014–2015, thread on soluble fabric, 172x219x124cm. Photo: Paul Tierney

Between you and me, 2014–2015, thread on soluble fabric, 172x219x124cm. Photo: Paul Tierney

Wunderkammer Installation and Plot painting. Photo: Paul Tierney

Wunderkammer, 1997-2015, found objects, diagrammatic images, microscopic images, insect pins, artmaking remnants, drawings, text, 244x141x122 cm. Photo: Paul Tierney

Wunderkammer, 1997-2015, found objects, diagrammatic images, microscopic images, insect pins, artmaking remnants, drawings, text, 244x141x122 cm. Photo: Paul Tierney