What themes or ideas do you investigate through your work?
The creation of imaginary places and objects as aids to memory and devotion. Christian history and saints. Mnemonics, the creation of a mnemonic system not in terms of the creation of a “memory palace” but rather in the creation of objects/sculptures/public art that have an intimate relationship to community and place and are useful to the community. Irish history; past/present/future. Absolute Art, the visual equivalent of Bach, which is to say pure line and form (usually influenced by music) in two dimensional work and in three dimensional work the expression of the figure/ and sculpture to a degree but mainly just pure form.
A theme which lives in all these influences is the simple idea that Art comes from Nature. My bi-cultural background has also influenced much creation, particularly from 2004 to 2019. Having returned home to Ireland (I was in Toronto from 2003 until 2021) six years ago the dominant ideas I deal with are Irish mythology, the creation of objects which have a particular meaning to specific locations in Ireland, and the idea to create a voice for Gaels in Ireland today in sculpture.
East/West connections between ourselves and Scotland and Wales are also important to me, as is the Irish language and a strong Ulster identity. I’m also crazy about ships, shipping, and transportation generally and would far rather take a boat or train rather than fly. At this point in my development my sketchbooks influence me as much as anything else, although I still read.
What are your preferred mediums with regards producing your work?
Pen and ink and mixed media for two dimensional work. Plaster, wax, turf, wood and stone for sculpture. I also work with light and use projectors, prisms, seeing glasses, various types of lenses, tuning forks, metronomes, astrolabes and other such tools in investigating the origin and uses that the maker can gain from observations from Nature in making and understanding.
Where can people see your work?
I have six major public sculptures/installations on the Falls, one in Ballymena, several public works in Canada in terms of sculpture, and murals in Cyprus to give you the abridged list. I’m proudest of my work in West Belfast in terms of public works and exhibitions, and of my Corpus et Spiritus sculpture in Aurora, Ontario, and my Marian Doors for St. Michael’s Cathedral Basilica in Toronto.
In terms of where people can see my work now, I’ve been exhibiting on a regular basis for the last six years in the Culturlann, Feile and Phobail at Collaiste Niamh Muire and other locations in Belfast. I show at Second Nature Gallery on Queen Street.
My upcoming shows will be in November in the Seannad in Dublin, and then a major exhibition of sculpture called Bua an Cultuir/Victory of Culture at the Marketplace Theatre and Arts Centre in Ard Macha. Soon I’ll also have one of my sculptures going up in Belfast as a full size bronze details to be announced soon.
Where to now?
Where to now? Artistically, I’m well versed in what I am doing in various mediums, genres and dimensions, so I’m at the stage where I’ll begin to break form and genre to see how far I can push things, not in terms of breaking the object to find out what it is or how it works as I know that already, but rather to come to a deeper understand of Nature and the essence of the thing I am dealing with in any particular piece. I will continue to work in the creation of sculpture in low relief and in the round of works which I have already researched and drawn out and which are the repository of memory and basically everything I know about Art and Nature.
Professionally, I will continue to exhibit and to strive to have my works turned into public monuments. Personally, I’d like to have more of a life outside of the studio to go to concerts and shows and see the work of other artists.
See more of Farhad O’Neill’s work here: farhadsculpture.com
