Katherine Eve sheds light on Donnelly's multimedia exhibitionDespite Donnelly’s strong reputation within the art community, she is little known in the public domain, so perhaps it is best to introduce her work with a quote from Art Review. “Donnelly’s works exist at the threshold of possible experience or understanding and require, if not optimism, at least suspension of disbelief.” To this end, she is a multi-media artist, taking her own typewritten texts as a starting point for works ranging from meticulously executed, disciplined drawings through to large-scale installation pieces. Together these are combined with organic elements, audio-stimuli and performance pieces, termed ‘demonstrations’, to form a novel reality. Links between the pieces are intangible, but this is by no means a criticism; the great thing about Donnelly’s work is that it makes no attempt to provide a profound metaphor for us to take away without challenge. The work persists, nagging, in one’s mind, demanding time to settle and evolve.
The ephemeral and incidental play an integral role in Donnelly’s work. Her opening-night ‘demonstration’ (recalling WWII planes experiencing a brief uplift before crashing to the ground, and urging observers to experience it through an audio-encapsulation of the phenomenon) was not recorded or documented in any way. In this way, it can only be transmitted to a wider public, if at all, by verbal description or word-of-mouth, subject to inevitable gaps in memory, distortions, exaggerations, and everything else in the space between experience and narration.
This aspect of her exhibitions achieves perfectly her aim that the viewer invests something of themselves in the work, and establishes a dialogue with the audience that places them in an elevated position. The viewer’s thoughts are challenged and become lucid and fragmented. This is not necessarily for us to tap into her own wavelength, but to bring our own history, intuition, experience and culture to the experience. Consequently, the impact of her art is unique and the corpus of her work timeless.
This particular exhibition was reasearched by Donnelly in several advance visits to the space. Those familiar with Modern Art Oxford may appreciate how the configuration of the three adjoining galleries, along with with the movement of acoustics through them, has evoked Donnelly’s interpretation of it as two heads (the front, ‘The Ballroom,’ and rear, ‘L.D.’, galleries) connected by a spine (‘The Arc’). Gallery space evolves with each and every exhibition staged, and Donnelly has exploited this to extremes. She has modified the middle gallery somewhat: windows not usually seen have been unmasked and the side room has been concealed and converted into a corridor to house replacement conifer branches used in the exhibition. These architectural changes not only enhance the light quality, but also, through the minimalist approach, enhance the sound and the dramatic progression as onlookers walk through.
Bunches of fresh roses and a ‘form of the Oxford branch’ (cut conifer) are replaced at regular intervals regardless of their rate of ageing. And 1920/30s big-band music is played on a loop, which serves various artistic purposes. Rhythmic cycles interact so that each viewer’s encounter with the work is shaded differently; the ageing cycle of living elements provides a tension; objects associated with home and familiarity are placed out of context leaving us insecure. Such blurring of boundaries continues.
It isn’t initially clear whether the hum in “The Arc” derives from the exhibition or external noise. (In another interpretation of boundaries, she’s exploring how the cultural and social backgrounds we arrived with inform our viewing). Gallery attendants have been informed they can alter the position of two vertical ‘cross-Arizona plus China’ branches on impulse. Of course we could do the same, but are unaware, so the staff are in a unique and privileged position.
The curation of the exhibition, undoubtedly directed in close collaboration with Donnelly, complements her themes perfectly. Lack of titles, unframed drawings and photographs pinned to walls shows that o single element is unduly important but all regarded as a whole. Our own being is even drawn into the installation as we become a mirror between the two ‘Pressures’ (near mirror-image photographs on opposing walls) in L.D.
In the spirit of her work I haven’t, and nor would I wish to, summarise the exhibition for the reader, but I hope that discussing a few of my personal reflections will whet appetites to embrace this extraordinary reality. Approach it with fresh eyes and no preconceptions.
