things Fall Apart
Solo show at 3rd floor, Dollard House, 5 Wellington Quay
Thursday May 24th—Sunday June 3rd, 2018
The show comprised of 17 works: paintings. laser-cut acrylic assemblages, silkscreen prints and leaded stained glass.
Things Fall Apart
‘Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold’
—WB Yeats, The Second Coming
Text written by Rayne Booth:
‘Things Fall Apart’ is a new body of work by Irish artist James Earley. This first solo exhibition marks a major artistic transition for Earley, who has a background in graffiti, in his use of diverse materials such as stained glass, coloured Perspex and screenprinting onto paper and silk. The exhibition includes two ambitious stained glass centre pieces which are inspired by Earley’s family background. Earley & Company was a renowned stained glass manufacturer in Ireland in the 19th century and the artist has looked to this personal heritage in order to develop his new work. Visually, the work references ecclesiastical art and design as well as the work of Irish art figures Evie Hone, Manie Jellett and Harry Clarke.
Opening the exhibition are three close up portraits which deconstruct the human face. This opening gesture refers us to the poem ‘The Second Coming’ by WB Yeats from which the exhibition takes its title - ‘Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold’. The work speaks of human frailty and our inability to come to terms with our own mortality. Moving through the exhibition, recognisable religious tropes become secularised though Earley’s strong use of abstraction.
The work also takes inspiration from Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe’s 2007 book ‘Things Fall Apart’ which documents pre and post colonial life in South Eastern Nigeria in the 19th century, as well as from the seminal album by the Roots of the same title. Both of these works also take their name from Yeat’s poem, and all three works deal with wide ranging themes of power, societal imbalances, religion, politics and ultimately, man’s inhumanity to man. Earley’s exhibition is a visual meditation and reflection of these themes, as well as of current global affairs (politics, economics, climate, religion). From an Irish perspective, the artist also aims to interrogate the place of the Church in Irish society, and to highlight the growing disillusionment with Catholicism that exists currently in this country.
