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Jennifer McCamley's recent work displays developments of several interests which have proved consuming for her and for the domain of visual representation generally. McCamley is particularly concerned with the interrogation of fundamental and inescapable paradoxes within the realm of the representable, or the non-representable.
Her exhibition seems to continue to grapple • with these paradoxes, subtly rephrasing them within a structure, a feeling and a place. The structure, the formalized area of the gallery, within which the artist placed her works according to a specific geometric arrangement. The feeling, a pervasive melancholy which does not emanate from the emotions of the artist but which almost sub-consciously embraces the grouping of works, amplified by their vaguely threatening predictions for art and semiology. In this, a melancholy which is never the property of the artist personally but always a property of all that her hand creates. Thirdly, the place within which these paradoxes are rephrased is Hybernia, a very old name for Ireland, which has (for artistic rather than geographical reasons) captured the imagination of the artist. Hybernia, for McCamley, is a brilliantly expressive context in which to re-open her continuing interrogation as the name seems to evoke a kaleidoscopic merging of 'colour· and a rich 'poetic history', in all its connotations. Perhaps, in line with many of the artist's preoccupations, Hybernia is one of the few truly fecund signifiers left to us.
The first two pieces, both entitled I Have Absolutely Nothing To Do With the XXth Century, are influenced by the Belgian artist, Thierry De Cordier. This subtle homage paid by McCamley stemmed initially from her fascination with the apparent disrepute in which much Belgian art seems to be held-so