Underground with Sharon McDonagh: An Eye For Detail
In the summer of 2022, BasementArtsProject continues it’s series of exhibitions delayed by the C***d pandemic of 2019 with ‘Resonate’ by York based artist Sharon McDonagh.
Sharon McDonagh | INHALE EXHALE
Resonate will be an exhibition delving into multiple worlds of fragmented memories. Through found objects and a painstaking eye for detail, McDonagh’s work builds a picture of lives before and a world beyond, through reconstructions of the present. Having worked as a Police Forensic Artist, her current practice is not too far removed from a world in which the gaps in reality are filled in by imagination. McDonagh has moved her attention from the world of reconstructing human identities for the purpose of identification, to the reconstruction of abandoned human habitation through architecture and found objects. Her work is nostalgic yet imbued with a sense of disquiet. Through these assemblages we are able to pick apart the remnants of people’s lives once they have departed and imagine what came before.
Sharon McDonagh: A Duty of Dereliction
Bruce: What was it in particular that brought you to this very distinctive style that you have adopted as practice? Some might consider it morbid but personally I find to be quite nostalgic, albeit with a sense of the uncanny or melancholic about it.
Sharon: I’ve always been fascinated by derelict buildings and used to explore them when I was a kid. Who lived there? What did they do? Why did they leave? Examining what was left in the building, trying to figure out the answers to these questions (I was a complex kid). As you get older, memories and nostalgia become a fierce reality of life, you grasp onto those fragments of memories and happy times. I don’t find it morbid, it’s a beautiful process by which I am immortalising a person, a time, a place, a memory…otherwise lost forever.
Bruce: I guess the immediate association with morbidity comes with the knowledge of the job you used to do, but in actual fact this is more like an archeological dig. Do you identify places that you want to work with from their outward architectural appearance, or do you have prior knowledge as to something about the buildings previous occupants that make you want to explore it in such depth?
Sharon: Yeah strangely my past occupations have somehow (and amazingly) had connections with my fascination to uncover the past. With the forensic art and working within the Police Force, being able to piece together the last fragments of a person’s life. Creating drawings of the unidentified person in order to identify them…does mirror what my work is all about. I have also worked at the hospital as part of the nursing team on an elderly ward, primarily end of life care. Again, working within this somewhat morbid field (although I don’t see it like that) gives me the inspiration and passion for creating my paintings.
With regard to buildings that I explore, I usually spot them when I’m out or people tell me about certain buildings. Some places I have permission as they are renovation projects, others are..shall we say, undisclosed buildings that I don’t reveal the location of for lots of reasons.
Bruce: Do you ever feel that you have stumbled upon things that you felt were never meant to be seen, and if so how do you deal with making choices about what to use and what to leave out?
Sharon: I find abandoned houses to be really sad places and I’d never take photos of anything that was personal as I’d feel like I was imposing on their privacy somehow. I only ever ‘rescue’ pieces of wallpaper, paint and other tiny objects that have fallen off walls due to decay. There’s a strict ‘code’ when you explore places, you never move items and you definitely never remove anything. If it’s a permission visit or a house that is being renovated, the owners are usually happy for me to strip wallpaper off the walls…I get a piece of history - they get their walls stripped.
Bruce: A perfectly symbiotic relationship.
Parallel conversation by text message:
Sharon: I’m working on the almost invisible pieces that blend in with the walls
Bruce: [In response to a photograph of new work for the show] That is amazing, I love it
Sharon: There was a fabulous hint of pink on the wall..I’m guessing from a previous artist..which I loved so have incorporated that into this piece
New work in development stage
Bruce: Yes that was from Pippa Eason’s work
Sharon: Really want to utilise the fragments of past exhibitors..just like the hints that are left behind in abandoned buildings
Bruce: Yes. It is a very unusual form of collaboration for sure
Sharon: Feels a bit shady..a forced collaboration (but in a nice non prison sentence way)
Bruce: Hahahaha, not at all. Past exhibitors all are aware of the nature of the space and all choose to somehow work with or around the work of others. It is funny that Pippa’s work is included in such a way as she is an artist who did with the work of Alistair Woods what you have done here; reconfiguring a remnant of his time in the Basement and adopting as part of what she was doing [rather than erasing it completely]
And this is the nature of many exhibitions at BasementArtsProject. Unlike most galleries, in which the walls are returned to as near pristine as possible, the Basement refuses to hide its past, with artists often using, by adoption or adaptation, elements for their own work.
Starting work in the Basement
This is a Beeston basement that has acquired an unusual history over the last eleven years that is difficult to ignore; the accretion of layers, like the sediments that form rock are constantly being unearthed and pieced together in the style of an archeological dig. Referencing the past to point to the future.
Sharon McDonagh’s work will be on display at BasementArtsProject from Thursday 14th July 2022.
We welcome everybody into our home / exhibition space for the opening night and hope to see you soon.
Bruce Davies in conversation with Sharon McDonagh
‘Resonate’ is an exhibition of work culled from McDonagh’s current practice, in which she imbues abandoned objects with a deep sense of nostalgia through her replication of the effect of natural decay. Blurring the boundaries between reality and memory, these detailed and highly textured multi-media works seek to grip the emotions that are ultimately formed in the last remaining fragments of life.
“In examining the fragility of life, we can come to recognise the significance of items left behind in the transition between life and death.”
PREVIEW
Thursday 14th July | 5.30pm – 8.30pm
Exhibition Open
Sunday 17th July | 2pm – 4pm By Appointment
Monday 18th July | 11:30am – 2:30pm
Thursday 21st July | 11:30am – 2:30pm
Sunday 24th July | 2pm – 4pm By Appointment
Monday 25th July | 11:30am – 2:30pm
Thursday 28th April | 11:30pm – 2:30pm
Sunday 31st July | 2pm – 4pm By Appointment
Monday 1st August | 11:30am – 2:30pm
Thursday 4th August | 11:30am - 2:30pm
Sharon McDonagh (b. Yorkshire 1969) is a York based artist with a passion for urban decay, derelict buildings and the fragility of life. Taking inspiration from her previous career as a high profile Police Forensic Artist and her work in End of Life Care, she has the ability to transform her subject matter into colourful, tactile paintings that evoke emotion, nostalgia and intrigue.
For many years McDonagh has created artists' impressions of unidentified fatalities from mortuary photographs and crime scene information. She has gained recognition for her work within the field on television as well as in the media due to her unusual work and experiences. She was commissioned as an artist by the BBC to produce the drawing of the late relative of Gary Lineker for the ‘Who Do You Think You Are’ programme.
Recently McDonagh has been utilising her skills to create highly textured acrylic and multi-media paintings that examine the beauty of nature through decay. She has been involved in community art projects with disadvantaged young people and young offenders as well as exhibiting at venues around York including the York Open Studios event. Recently she has worked with teenagers from challenging backgrounds, promoting art as a way to express themselves.,She was also the artist delivering a unique project on the Dementia ward at York Hospital, using art as a way to encourage patient interaction and to alleviate anxiety.
WEBSITE: sharonmcdonagh-artist.co.uk