CEREMONY

For Culture Night The Complex presented a duo exhibition, showcasing the works of two artists scheduled to exhibit in The Complex Visual Arts Programme 2021, Ann Ensor and Austin Hearne.

Ann Ensor is an installation artist based in Dublin who combines sculpture, paint and sound. Ensor’s practice explores a world of agential matter of which the human is just a part. She explores shared milieus with other entities and what is meaningful for us in understanding the universe in this way. Ensor is influenced by new concepts on materiality and environmental issues are central to her practice. 

Austin Hearne’s practice is rooted in photography wherein he explores its possibilities to produce installations, objects and performances that expand the limits of the photograph and indeed the medium. Prints, furnishings, wallpapers, garments and the materials of the painting and decorating industry all feature, carrying his created imagery and weaved narratives which merge fact and fiction, creating worlds, characters and scenarios that may or may not exist.

Installation is a medium which is prevalent in both Austin and Ann’s practice, for ceremony we aimed to exercise this medium to create an immersive setting in which Austin and Ann’s work collaborate. Pulling from the performative element of Austin’s practice, through the use of theatre lighting and installation, the space becomes a stage. Both installations work together to form a set in which the viewer enters into, and becomes a part of. Ann’s work takes centre stage in order to grip the visitors imagination upon entering. Austin’s work provides a backdrop of sorts, depicting a specific environment in order to develop a fictional narrative which draws from issues referring to the human condition, mortality and environmental issues. While also inevitably influenced by the current state of existence in which we find ourselves. 

The combination of these works, along with the space itself, create a surreal environment which allows the viewer to piece together their own reality.

Interviews With The Artists