HOLDING ON lightly

Elaine Grainger

Friday 15 September - Monday 4 December 2023

HOLDING ON lightly is an active presentation of work that is continuously shifting throughout the period of the exhibition. Materials and objects are moved from the artist’s studio situated nearby on Talbot Street and rearranged on site through instinctive movements forming new arrangements. 

The evolving presentation of carefully chosen materials and objects, alongside those that are handmade, carries a set of questions in relation to the hierarchy between objects/materials and the space they occupy.

The audience's interaction with the work is dictated by what is presented in that moment and also by allowing time and light to curate what is visible. *

Grainger uses mundane materials like plastic sheeting, paper, fabric, as well as everyday domestic objects, such as ornaments, carpet and curtains, interwoven with clay, wax, plants and other organic materials. As the cube is transformed with objects forming, accumulating and disappearing, new conversations in turn form and dissipate; leaving the space filled with traces of the experiences that existed.

Works in this exhibition will be sourced and shown off-site for a period of time, in a small antiques shop 'Under the Bridge', located on Talbot Street.

*Response to Grainger’s work by Artist and Curator Catriona Whiteford

Publication

The LAB Gallery is delighted to present an essay by artist and writer Laura Ní Fhlaibhín in response to 'HOLDING ON lightly'. The essay is available to download.

About the artist

Elaine Grainger is an artist based in Dublin working across sculpture, installation, painting, sound and video. She received an MA in Fine Art at NCAD, Dublin in 2018. Recent exhibitions include: undone, site-specific collaborative intervention, Körpasstradir Gallery, Reykjavik (2022), Visible Island, site-specific performance, Dublin (2021), the limits of my language, Kilkenny Arts Office Gallery (2021), Things that blew in, Industrial Zone Barreiro, Portugal (2020), The possibilities of place, CCI, Paris + Temple Bar Gallery & Studios, Dublin (2019) and The gap between noise (solo exhibition), The Complex, Dublin (2019). Shortlisted for RDS Visual Arts Awards (2018), winner of RDS Centre Culturel Irlandais Residency Award (2018), selected for RHA Peer Residency Award (2019) and Highly Commended Award, Highlane Gallery (2020). She is Kindly supported by The Arts Council and Fingal County Council.