A solo exhibition of installation and video works by Sibyl Montague, winner of the Emerging Visual Artist Award 2012 • In association with Wexford County Council and the Arts Council

The Emerging Visual Artist Award is a joint initiative between the Arts Council, Wexford County Council and Wexford Arts Centre which acknowledges and supports the development of committed visual artists in Ireland, providing funding to produce and exhibit a body of work.

Beyond Violet refers to the light situated beyond the visible spectrum – violet being the colour of the highest frequency of visible light. Realised through the mediums of sculpture, video and installation, this exhibition represents a formal and conceptual shift in Montague’s practice and aims to consider base materialism in relation to capital.

Montague’s work explores the core materiality and agency of images and objects that accumulate through capital working with a wide range of material to engage principles of economy that suggest wealth, leisure or parcity. Drawing reference from consumer/prosumer goods, commercial aesthetics and found footage, Montague positions moving images in relation to sculpture, combining both digital and sculptural processes that seek to uncover the inherent economies embedded in her source material. The incorporation of common everyday materials associated with both domestic and commercial spaces helps connect to and explore themes associated with consumption, abundance and immersion, while her process of assemblage actively aims to re-assert everyday materials in a process that concurrently de-familiarises them. Drawing from a wide vocabulary of elements that combine both online/offline sources, Beyond Violet focuses on the particular, base qualities of material, its currency and affect within larger networks or economies relating to consumer goods, user experience and brands.

Montague is currently based in Dublin. In 2012 she completed a MFA at Chelsea College of Art London and was the recipient of the Wexford Emerging Artist Award. Recent solo projects include Woman Flew Home (2013), The Black Mariah, Cork; Arm Around You (2012), Oriel Davies Gallery, Wales; TWO (2008), George Polke Gallery, London. Recent group exhibitions include This is Public and Sexy (2016), Studio 468, Dublin; (2016); What Does Nothing Do(2014), CCA, Glasgow; Bringing the Art Home (2014), Deptford X, London. Montague is co-founder and co-curator of PLASTIK, a Festival of Artists’ Moving Image and recent awards include TBG+S Project Studio Award (2014), Fire Station Sculpture Award (2014), The Red Mansion Shortlist (2012), and the Oriel Davies Open (2010).