Light and Shadow

JOANNE LAWS INTERVIEWS ARTIST CIARA ROCHE ABOUT THE EVOLUTION OF HER PAINTING PRACTICE.

Joanne Laws: Can you discuss what have you been working on during lockdown? Did you have access to your studio?

Ciara Roche: I consider myself to be so lucky that my studio is in my parents converted garage, which is just a few minutes’ walk from where I live, so I had access to my studio throughout the pandemic. I spent all of my time there making many small paintings but also testing larger scales and really pushing myself with what it was that I was painting. I had a lot of failures in the studio but success also came. The paintings made during this time were for two shows in particular – ‘of late…’ in Mother’s Tankstation and ‘Ochre’ in Wexford Arts Centre.

Just as the pandemic hit, I was starting to really think about what it was I wanted to say to the world. I remembered a trip to Kildare Village a few weeks before; I was there with four friends, and we were all browsing luxury bits. I was particularly taken with some top of the range bedsheets and then it hit me – at the time, all of us were still living at home with our parents. I cannot afford health insurance and have no pension plans. Did I really want those bedsheets or did the world just make me think I did because the acquirement of stuff is a measure of your success when the things that normally mean success are unattainable? I don’t have a dependable income or a home of my own, but it’s ok I have every shade of this Charlotte Tilbury lipstick.

I started thinking about this in relation to my painting. I can make beautiful paintings and I wanted to challenge the idea of what I can or should paint – what deserved to be painted? I began with paintings of lingerie shops (the perfect body); appliance stores (the perfect home); and Ikea showrooms – would the viewer see the ideal home set up, or the fact that this is not a real home? In a way, the isolation of the pandemic helped in the making of this work. I felt like I was just doing it for myself and nobody else was ever going to see them, so I might as well make multiple paintings of shiny, sexy, disgusting stuff!

JL: In many of your paintings there is a heavy emphasis on light and shadow; can you outline the importance of this for your practice?

CR: I have always been obsessed with painting light. Previous bodies of work have all been around natural light, exploring the effects of certain painted lights on different scenes – how light is read in terms of narrative. Some have explored the difference in painting cold Irish light and the heightened Australian light. More recent paintings of retail interiors play up the notion of seductive artificial lighting to draw the viewer in and then when I have your attention with the beautifully painted light, then you can really look at what is being painted. I also love the challenge of rendering light, as it is really all about colour and I think in colour.

JL: The lack of figures in your paintings and the focus on structure suspends many of your pieces in time. How do you see temporality as a factor in your process?

CR: Leaving figures out also helps to let the viewer in. I rarely paint figures so the viewer can inhabit the scene themselves, imagine themselves there. I never want figures in the paintings of public places – parks, cafés, shops – places for idleness, as I want the viewer to insert themselves and create a moment, to let their own thoughts fill the scene. I have painted people in my own home and I think these paintings work as this is a barrier to the viewer. There is already a figure there and you cannot come in now, as this is my private space, and these are my people. You can watch but cannot partake, since this is a moment set in reality – the time did exist and there were witnesses. JL: Your paintings are being shown concurrently in several venues: ‘of late…’, your solo show at Mother’s Tankstation; ‘Ochre’ a two-person exhibition with Emma Roche at Wexford Arts Centre; ‘HOME: Being and Belonging in Contemporary Ireland’, a group show at The Glucksman; and ‘MEET’, a group show in Periphery Space. What can you tell us about these different bodies of work?

CR: ‘of late…’ at Mother’s Tankstation is the body of work made throughout 2020 of places of retail, the paintings made in the first two lockdowns – paintings coming from a place of anger at first but progressing to some really fun paintings. Allowing humour and cheek into the work, it ended up being the most enjoyable body of work to make. They can also be read in terms of the lockdown and all the empty public spaces people became so accustomed to.

The paintings for ‘Ochre’ were made between January and May of this year. Working with Emma has been a joy. Her paintings are coming from a very different place, since she is at the stage of rearing a young family and she brings her own experience into the work. Her paintings focus on a lack of time with a heavy dose of reality. We would bounce work off each other; I have continued to paint objects of desire for the attainment of the perfect lifestyle – nutribullets, Tom Ford makeup, sexy yoga gear and spaces for idle time with a heavy dose of superficiality!

The paintings in ‘HOME’ were made in Sydney, Australia, when I lived there in 2019, and depict the bar, café and restaurant that I first felt at home in. It fits with the show, as it is a representation of the huge numbers in my generation (and previous generations) who have emigrated to Australia.

After the intensity of preparing work for ‘of late…’ and ‘Ochre’, I felt I needed to do something a little different for a while and the latest works for ‘MEET’ are paintings of my place and with some of my people appearing in them. I feel that ‘MEET’ is a safe space in which to test these works that I have not shown before; it’s exciting that they are different to all the other paintings currently on show.

JL: Can you outline some of your current work or upcoming projects?

CR: At the moment, I am making some paintings with figures in them. These are a continuation of the works in ‘MEET’ and really just experiments and a break from retailheavy work. I plan to take some time over the summer to feed my practice by visiting places of interest for the purposes of research. I have the beginnings of some new paintings in my mind, and I am very excited about spending prolonged time in the studio testing and pushing the work. I feel like my recent paintings are just the beginning and that I have so much more to say.

Ciara Roche is a painter based in County Wexford. Her solo exhibition, ‘of late…’, continues at Mother’s Tankstation until 3 July. motherstankstation.com