This new body of work, Utopian Spaceships is a series of eleven hybrid prints on paper and is a continuation on from my previous Próiseas collection butis a completely separate entity both in its approach and artistic process. I have translated parts of the imagery of Próiseas and moved it forward, simplifying shape and form through a combination of screen-printing, mono-printing, cyanotype and painting. I have approached this work in a more poetic, idealist manner. The original concept, of Próiseas, was the intrusion, surveillance and presence of the Army watchtowers. This new body of work has evolved into a complete juxtaposition that evokes a feeling of utopia. I want the viewer to be immersed in the bright, sometimes fluorescent colour palette and be submerged into another world. A world of beautiful shape, design and colour palette… ‘an imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect’.
This world is my way of overlooking the past, ignoring the greyness and forgetting about a place where there was a constant overhang of shadow. I want the viewer to look at the beauty of the Irish border landscape and embrace a new terrain. A new land of hope and positivity, buzzing with bright and colourful opportunities for the future and brimming with possibilities.
