Exhibition - Barbara Knežević pleasure 'scapes at the RHA
pleasure ‘scapes is a new sculptural artwork comprised of a network of bronzed structures, backdropped by glistening printed lycra, anchored by rounded, curved bodily stone forms, studded with resin future fossils, draped with chain, and inset with ceramic vessels. Dangling touch-discs hang from uprights, snake plants quietly respirate, cotton cords span lengths.
This artwork is offered as a temporary habitation. It is an invitation to an extended, sensual engagement with the objects, plants, surfaces, forms and materials that comprise the work.
The networked, armature-like structure spanning the gallery creates conditions that are sympathetic to dwelling within this sculpture garden, this garden of things, this minor ecosystem of surfaces and textures, forms, shapes histories, futures, references and symbols.
pleasure ‘scapes allows space for the act of deep noticing and sensual engagement as a way to establish kinship with objects and matter, plants, animals and each other. The work acknowledges the potential for artworks to provide hospitality and act as spaces for repose and contemplation. This artwork is a place for embodied, affective and sensory pleasure. Here, pleasure is considered as a radical act, full of possibility, intelligence, belief, excess and the rupture of small discoveries. Pleasure ‘scapes is an affirmation of sensitive bodily worlding, alive with the intensity and quiet joy that arises from proximity to materials, objects, matter, plants, culture and each other.
Barbara Knežević is an artist and educator living and working in Dublin. Her work has been shown internationally in museums, public and private galleries such as Woman in the Machine, VISUAL Carlow; Immurement, STATION Gallery Melbourne; The MAC, Belfast; Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, Dublin; EKKM, Tallinn; Gallery Augusta, Helsinki; HIAP, Helsinki. She has been commissioned for public art projects and her work features in National and Private Collections such as the Irish Museum of Modern Art and the Arts Council of Ireland. She is a lecturer in Fine Art at TU Dublin.