Artist’s Statement,
Noel Hensey,
June 2020.
My art practice is concerned with ’openness’, more precisely; it is concerned with mental openness over physical openness.
The main motivation for the practice is to change and liberate any obscuration’s (cognitive or emotional) to this openness.
The main theme within the work is the perceptive dynamics of encountering found objects and situations whereby the viewer’s habitual semantic/judgmental processes are slowed or stopped.
My practice is multi-disciplinary and includes; photography, installation, sculpture, sound and video.
I use methods that complement the theoretical framework of the practice including: assemblage; appropriation (specifically re-interpretation and re-contextualisation); using a combination of optical hardware and software along with traditional mediums, interchanging mediums and site-specific work.
The practice is inspired by Buddhist practices and philosophies, and by concept and pop art.
‘So You’re Going To Die’,,
Eoin O’Dowd (Curator, Eight Gallery, Dublin.),
Exhibition Text, Nov. 2017.
Eoin O’Dowd (Curator, Eight Gallery, Dublin.),
Exhibition Text, Nov. 2017.
Eight Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Noel Hensey.
The exhibition entitled ‘So You’re Going To Die’ at Eight Gallery is a mixed-media installation consisting of an intersection between; photography, print, sculpture, video and the Eight Gallery architecture.
It is concerned with various aspects of death; homages to artworks on the subject of death, and memento mori (keeping an object as a reminder of the inevitability of death). It also considers the unknown time of one’s death, and views-points on death, such as that at death it is you who judges your own life.
The collection contains a number of pieces that interact in groups; multiples of a single work and multiple elements within a work. These are connected with repetitive religious actions, recitation, bodily gestures and the meditation technique of continually returning ones attention to the object of concentration when distracted.
The exhibition utilises everyday objects and situations to explore the realisation that both death and some of our most potent living experiences are equally involved in the everyday.
The exhibition entitled ‘So You’re Going To Die’ at Eight Gallery is a mixed-media installation consisting of an intersection between; photography, print, sculpture, video and the Eight Gallery architecture.
It is concerned with various aspects of death; homages to artworks on the subject of death, and memento mori (keeping an object as a reminder of the inevitability of death). It also considers the unknown time of one’s death, and views-points on death, such as that at death it is you who judges your own life.
The collection contains a number of pieces that interact in groups; multiples of a single work and multiple elements within a work. These are connected with repetitive religious actions, recitation, bodily gestures and the meditation technique of continually returning ones attention to the object of concentration when distracted.
The exhibition utilises everyday objects and situations to explore the realisation that both death and some of our most potent living experiences are equally involved in the everyday.
‘Miles From Home’,
Chris Fite-Wassilak (Writer/Critic),
Exhibition Text, Feb. 2012.
Chris Fite-Wassilak (Writer/Critic),
Exhibition Text, Feb. 2012.
A glass, two-thirds full of water, perches on a high glass shelf. A small sheet pinned at eye level carries on a short series of questions and answers. The questioner pursues on the actuality of the glass of water being, as is claimed, a tree. “To conceive the category ‘oak tree’ or to picture a particular oak tree is not to understand and experience what appears to be a glass of water as an oak tree. Just as it is imperceivable it also inconceivable.” – An Oak Tree (Michael Craig-Martin, 1973)
Noel Hensey’s exhibition ‘Miles From Home’ works with an economy of means, grasping at any number of incidentally encountered things – from music, snapshots inspired from the area surrounding the exhibition, to a pair of wooden pylons encountered on a walk. Surfaces we take for granted and things that seem readily apparent are gathered, categorized and arranged here. Photography and sculpture become an observational tool with which to unmoor the everyday. Each of the presences in the show is an anchored metaphor, existing no doubt in front of us, but with enough instability to let us glimpse the possibility that a door is not a door.
Nestled among the raked sand, Hensey uses sound to stand in for the elements of a traditional Japanese rock garden. A dog’s bark bouncing from one speaker to another sculpts an invisible bridge. Another speaker plays music from musicians who have recently passed away, from Whitney Houston, to Amy Winehouse, to James Bond theme tune composer John Barry the echoes from their lives becoming a stream of relived moments and resurrections, the garden’s perpetually flowing fountain. Opposite the garden, a series of photos in the show are, at first, unremarkable: a fly on the surface of a television screen during a golf tournament; men cleaning the glass railings of a moving walkway; a football fields posts. But they all share an easy sense of space, and are gathered together as a collection looking at different forms of openings. Each of these moments have a set of quiet contradictions, gentle possibilities like a fly in a different environment elevated to art object. What becomes remarkable is that we walk right by these sorts of moments every day without even noting them.
Between the different media and the unhurried approaches of his work, Hensey creates a space where appearances become more analogies of presences. Like Michael Craig-Martin’s questioner, we might insist that things are what they appear to be his transformation isn’t just a semantic one, but also a metaphysical. For Hensey, the path to the metaphysical is through the physical, and he asks us to reassess its certainties to find other essences hiding in plain sight. He gently dissuades a material monism and literal reading of physicality or appearance, letting things as they are instead be something else entirely. Whether we see the door as a door or a jar is up to us.
Noel Hensey’s exhibition ‘Miles From Home’ works with an economy of means, grasping at any number of incidentally encountered things – from music, snapshots inspired from the area surrounding the exhibition, to a pair of wooden pylons encountered on a walk. Surfaces we take for granted and things that seem readily apparent are gathered, categorized and arranged here. Photography and sculpture become an observational tool with which to unmoor the everyday. Each of the presences in the show is an anchored metaphor, existing no doubt in front of us, but with enough instability to let us glimpse the possibility that a door is not a door.
Nestled among the raked sand, Hensey uses sound to stand in for the elements of a traditional Japanese rock garden. A dog’s bark bouncing from one speaker to another sculpts an invisible bridge. Another speaker plays music from musicians who have recently passed away, from Whitney Houston, to Amy Winehouse, to James Bond theme tune composer John Barry the echoes from their lives becoming a stream of relived moments and resurrections, the garden’s perpetually flowing fountain. Opposite the garden, a series of photos in the show are, at first, unremarkable: a fly on the surface of a television screen during a golf tournament; men cleaning the glass railings of a moving walkway; a football fields posts. But they all share an easy sense of space, and are gathered together as a collection looking at different forms of openings. Each of these moments have a set of quiet contradictions, gentle possibilities like a fly in a different environment elevated to art object. What becomes remarkable is that we walk right by these sorts of moments every day without even noting them.
Between the different media and the unhurried approaches of his work, Hensey creates a space where appearances become more analogies of presences. Like Michael Craig-Martin’s questioner, we might insist that things are what they appear to be his transformation isn’t just a semantic one, but also a metaphysical. For Hensey, the path to the metaphysical is through the physical, and he asks us to reassess its certainties to find other essences hiding in plain sight. He gently dissuades a material monism and literal reading of physicality or appearance, letting things as they are instead be something else entirely. Whether we see the door as a door or a jar is up to us.
‘Dublin: Noel Hensey at Ivy House’
Emer Marron (Senior Administrator in Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, Dublin.)
Article reproduced from CIRCA 110, Winter 2004, p.95.
Emer Marron (Senior Administrator in Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, Dublin.)
Article reproduced from CIRCA 110, Winter 2004, p.95.
In the heart of Drumcondra on Dublin city’s northern edge, The Ivy House pub and restaurant exhibits an active visual-arts programme. Curated by Claire Halpin, this stylish venue creates an invaluable platform for the emerging artist, showcasing Rollage by Noel Hensey during autumn 2004.
Over several years, Hensey has accumulated a myriad of visual miscellany. Drawings, photographs, printed matter, text pieces, artwork prints, computer files, in fact any found imagery that warrants attention. Working from this eclectic library, Hensey has created two distinctive aesthetics. Arranging images into a visual labyrinth, Hensey selects smaller, more intelligent groups making single compositions or “open sequences.” Balancing the aesthetic with more conceptual or suggestive material, an inherent if ethereal relationship within the assemblage is evident. The work is encased in deep perspex boxes that follow the stepped outline of each composition. The definite, angular contours contrast with the fluidity of Hensey’s train of thought. Visually simplified, the second strand of Rollage manipulates single images using computer software and other methods. Final images are produced in an imposing scale using digiprint. The superior quality of the digiprint process transforms even the simplest composition into work rich in colour and tonal subtly.
Indicative of the contemporary artist, Hensey moves with ease from traditional to technological processes. Balanced with some humour, Hensey is predisposed to philosophical exploration. The serenity of Rollage is almost incongruous in a public bar, yet this juxtaposition empowers the work.
Over several years, Hensey has accumulated a myriad of visual miscellany. Drawings, photographs, printed matter, text pieces, artwork prints, computer files, in fact any found imagery that warrants attention. Working from this eclectic library, Hensey has created two distinctive aesthetics. Arranging images into a visual labyrinth, Hensey selects smaller, more intelligent groups making single compositions or “open sequences.” Balancing the aesthetic with more conceptual or suggestive material, an inherent if ethereal relationship within the assemblage is evident. The work is encased in deep perspex boxes that follow the stepped outline of each composition. The definite, angular contours contrast with the fluidity of Hensey’s train of thought. Visually simplified, the second strand of Rollage manipulates single images using computer software and other methods. Final images are produced in an imposing scale using digiprint. The superior quality of the digiprint process transforms even the simplest composition into work rich in colour and tonal subtly.
Indicative of the contemporary artist, Hensey moves with ease from traditional to technological processes. Balanced with some humour, Hensey is predisposed to philosophical exploration. The serenity of Rollage is almost incongruous in a public bar, yet this juxtaposition empowers the work.