Approved: 17.08.2016

Noel Hensey

Artist

Archived
Approved: 17.08.2016

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

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  • Location: Co. Kildare, Europe

Artist Statement

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

My practice is concerned with the production and maintenance of ‘openness’/’spaciousness’, which could be defined as the ground where you can no longer distinguish between self and other. More specifically, it is a concern with mental openness over physical openness.

The main theme within my work is the perceptive dynamics of encountering found objects and situations whereby the viewer’s habitual semantic/judgmental processes are slowed down, as issues such as ownership prove difficult to define. More recently I have become interested in the theme of sound as creator and signifier of openness/spaciousness. As Roland Barthes states in his essay écoute ‘By the perception of degrees of remoteness and of regular return of phonic stimulus…for the human being the appreciation of space is a matter of sound.’

With regard to working methodology I try to use methods that compliment the theoretical framework of the practice including; assemblage, appropriation (specifically re-interpretation and re-contextualisation), using a combination of visual and audio hardware and software along with traditional mediums, intersecting mediums and art and architecture.

The practice is multi-disciplinary and includes; photography, installation, sculpture, sound and video. The work is formulated through; drawing, photography, and the collection of found imagery and objects.

The practice is inspired by Buddhist practices and philosophies, existing art that is: concept art, expressionism and minimalism and music.

CV & Education

CV

Noel Hensey was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1977. He currently lives and works in Co. Kildare, Ireland. Between 2008 and 2010 he completed a P.G. Dip and a MA in Fine Art both at Chelsea College of Art and Design, London, U.K.

His group exhibitions include: ‘6x6xTri Showcase for Ireland’, 411 Galleries, Hangzhou City, Eastlink Gallery, Shanghai and the Chinese Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing, 2005; 'Invisible Means of Support', The Rochelle School, London, 2009; ‘Your Higher Plane Awaits’, Chelsea College, London, Q-Art London’s ‘Presents II’, APT Gallery, London, 2010; Bloomberg New Contemporaries’, Site Gallery and S1 Artspace, Sheffield and the I.C.A., London, 2011; 7th Berlin Biennale For Contemporary Art’, Berlin, 2012; Chelsea College Salon’, CONS Projects, London, 2014; ‘Pop Living’, Schwartz Gallery, London, 'ArtVenice Biennale 3', Venice, Italy and 'Catalyst Arts Saloon', Catalyst Arts, Belfast, ‘Claremorris Open Exhibition’, Co. Mayo andANON | Art Now or Never’, 126, Galway, 2015; 'Raw’, Catalyst Arts, Belfast, 2016.

His solo exhibitions include: ‘Rollage’, The Ivy House, Dublin, 2004; ‘Sick’, Pallas Contemporary Projects, Dublin, 2008 and ‘Miles From Home’, Riverbank Arts Centre, Co. Kildare, Ireland, 2012.

In 2009 he received an ‘Artists and Collectors Bursary’ from Chelsea College, a ‘Special Projects Award’ from Chelsea Arts Club Trust and undertook a three-month residency at Kala Institute, Berkeley, U.S.A. In 2011 he was shortlisted by Chelsea College for the ‘Red Mansion Art Prize’, was selected for ‘Bloomberg New Contemporaries’ and won the Co. Kildare ‘Emerging Visual Artist Award’. This year he received an ‘Arts Act Grant’ from Kildare County Council Arts Service and was longlisted by WW Contemporary Art, London, U.K. for the Solo Award 2016.