His exhibition may be entitled New Works but the themes are ones that Michael Quane has been exploring fruitfully for many years: horse and rider, buoyancy and the quadruped (a kind of cuddly lizard). There is a comic absurdity and even intimations of Samuel Beckett in his buoyancy series, with each piece featuring a bare forked everyman equipped with a different swimming aid. Figure with Buoyancy shows the weirdly proportioned character with a swim ring around his middle and an apprehensive expression. The horse and rider sculptures are beautiful, flowing essays in Kilkenny limestone and Carrara marble for which Quane is best known. However, the show is dominated by Carbon Sync, a bizarre wooden sculpture more than 6ft high. It features an alarmed figure with arms outstretched, wearing a wet suit, armbands and flippers. The work is carved from elm, with graphite rubbed in to create the wet-suit effect. Quane’s intention is to highlight the vital role played by trees in preserving our planet. The figure is a poster boy for the apocalypse — a fraught survivor in a world that is poisoning itself.
John P O’Sullivan
Solomon Fine Art, Dublin, Tue-Fri 10am-5.30pm, Sat 11am-4pm; solomonfineart.ie
June 26, 2019