At Millennium Court Arts Centre, we have a strong commitment to contemporary craft and support the creation and promotion of new work by innovative designer-makers. So it is with great pleasure that we present over twenty new ceramic works by Belfast-based Irish ceramicist Michael Moore.
As a sculptor, Moore is interested in the construction of objects by hand and draws inspiration from visual forms within nature, such as coastlines and geological markings in landscape, exploring the changes marked by time and creating a resonance within his earth-like, abstract sculptural pieces. Known for his visceral forms of abstracted landscapes, a central theme in the new work is the concept of interaction or what essayist Audrey Whitty calls an, ‘interplay between the man-made and natural environment’. In this new work, Moore creates an inherent visual tension on several different levels.
The first tension is one of the artwork as a static object versus one that evokes movement. Moore has successfully created sublime, sensual and sculptural ceramic pieces, while utilising form, function, line and colour, drawing in our responses to the innate movement found in the work. Secondly, Moore’s work is both intimate and sizeable in scale. An artist-in-residency in the Canadian Rockies has inspired new, larger pieces, in size, scale and ambition, creating both a tangible presence in the gallery and an elicit response in the viewer. A third tension is one of seduction. Moore’s work has always been incredibly striking—physically in its sensual forms and surface, and conceptually in its sophisticated Modernist influence. It is these nuances found within the multiple visceral tensions that convey the power in Moore’s ceramic pieces.
Through this exhibition MCAC hopes to initiate craft catalysts, by supporting individual artist-makers within the craft/ design sector and develop a synergy for the promotion of an arts/ crafts milieu on a local, national, and international level. To this end, the ‘Departures’ exhibition will go on tour to Wexford Arts Centre in late Spring 2009.
