cludeaigh draein
patinated cast bronze
This piece represents the artist's fascination with seemingly banal drain covers and their potential symbology. They are metaphors for emotions and memories that are concealed and hidden beneath a textured, layered exterior. Drain covers are precision structures that while they are continuously walked over there is little awareness of what is moving and flowing underneath.
A recurring theme of grids, grates and drains run through her practice. This theme is a metaphor for suppressed fear, a fear developed from being forced to remain silent and a fear felt by people not being allowed to have a voice. Grids represent the bars, cells and the oppression of containment, of being controlled. Grates are a reminder of the fearful Catholic confessional box, a symbol of control, and a constant reminder of a background of guilt and oppression. Drains represent the feelings and memories that are hidden beneath.
