A ‘LIFE-AFFIRMING’ SPOONS EXHIBIT

WEXFORD-BASED artist Bernadette Doolan has won the prestigious honour of exhibiting her work at Royal Ulster Academy for the second year running.

Bernadette’s collection of 196 porcelain spoons with hawthorn branch handles representing all the children who died in the care of the HSE between 2000 and 2010 will be on show as part of the Academy’s annual exhibition at the Ulster Museum from this Thursday until January next.

Last year, the self-taught artist and Dublin native who also has a solo exhibition opening in Selskar, Wexford, on October 23, won the Perpetual Prize for overall best work by a non-member of the Academy for her figurative painting ‘Quiet Strength’, which was sold before the 2015 exhibition opened.

A second painting which can be seen in the forthcoming Wexford exhibition was also shortlisted this year by the RUA which receives more than 1,000 submissions each year for 150 non-member places in the Belfast show.

The 196 spoons are inscribed with words such as ‘mother’, ‘father’ ‘ love’ ‘ laughter’, ‘nurture’, ‘ happiness’ and ‘safety’ as reminders of the supports we all should have coming into this world if we are lucky. The theme is in contrast to the idea of being born with a silver spoon in your mouth.

The exhibition ‘196’ was first shown at the Copperhouse Gallery in Dublin last year where it was officially opened by the Wexfordman and Amnesty Internatonal Ireland director Colm O’Gorman, who described the work as ‘fundamentally life-affirming’.

Bernadette undertook the project after hear- ing a news bulletin about the deaths of children in State care.

‘I felt the need to do something about it. I realised as an artist I can bring awareness through my art. There are 196 spoons to represent every child who died during that time period.’

‘Each child is unique and individual, just like every child born into this world. The spoons are made with porcelain and natural branches. Porcelain is very fragile yet extremely strong, highlighting the vulnerability and strength of these children’.

‘ This work is about acknowledging each and every soul that came into this world but due to circumstances beyond any single individual’s control, they never got to live past 18 years,’ she said.

(By Maria Pepper)