Interval Two (Dream Pool) by Ailbhe Ní Bhriain

Kerlin Gallery is delighted to present Interval Two (Dream Pool), Ailbhe Ní Bhriain’s first solo exhibition at Kerlin Gallery.

The visual worlds created by Ní Bhriain are at once precise and enigmatic, drawing the familiar into a register of interruption and disorientation. Three large-scale Jacquard tapestries form the centre of this exhibition. In these intricately woven works, fragments of archival portraits merge with images of underground caves and architectural ruins. The resulting scenes of threshold and collapse are inhabited by thylacines, birds of prey and other unlikely creatures, threading an imagined line between contemporary threats of extinction and ancient narratives of the underworld.

In an abstract counterpart, a series of framed pigment prints depicts the reverse side of early photographic documents. The material conditions of the objects hint here at their stories – revealing the absences of the archive and the un-glimpsed narrative ‘behind’ an image.

Interval Two (Dream Pool) reflects an ongoing body of work, encompassing sculpture, photography and a forthcoming film. At its core is an exploration of dislocation, with historical displacement considered against the spectre of loss that haunts the contemporary imagination.

Ailbhe Ní Bhriain is an Irish artist working with film, computer-generated imagery, collage, tapestry, print and installation. Ní Bhriain’s work is rooted in an exploration of imperial legacy, human displacement and the Anthropocene. These intertwined subjects are approached through an associative use of narrative and a painstakingly crafted visual language that verges on the surreal. She sidesteps directive positions and familiar binaries, exposing instead the layers of ambiguity and contradiction embedded in these fraught issues. Her work has been exhibited widely both nationally and internationally and regularly involves collaboration with musicians and composers.

Ailbhe Ní Bhriain’s work has been shown at venues including Broad Museum, Michigan; Hammer Museum, LA; Gagosian-Deitch Projects, Miami; Whitechapel Gallery, London; Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham; CCA, Glasgow; IMMA, Dublin; Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin; GLUCKSMAN, Cork; Istanbul Modern, Istanbul; Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid and the 16th Lyon Biennale. Public collections of her work include MAC Lyon; Crawford Art Gallery, Cork; Trinity College Dublin; The Arts Council of Ireland; and Office of Public Works, Ireland.

Current and upcoming exhibitions include Ground State – Fellowship Within the Uncanny, Lagos Photo Festival, Nigeria; Following Threads, Crawford Art Gallery, Ireland; Les Formes de la Ruine, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, France; Heaven Can Wait, Innsbruck International Biennial, Austria; Lismore Castle Arts, Ireland (solo); and An Experiment with Time, Kunsthal Gent, Belgium (all 2023/24).