‘Spiders and Cheerleaders’, a solo exhibition by Emma Roche, opened at The Ground Floor Gallery on Friday December 3rd. Thank you to everyone who came along on opening night, and to Jameson for providing refreshments.
‘Spiders and Cheerleaders’ is a site-specific exhibition, featuring “knitted” paintings and installation. Roche explores ‘everyday’ ideas in these paintings, which are made using long lines of dried paint employed like wool.
Roche described the paintings in ‘Spiders and Cheerleaders’ as her most personal work to date. A newly commissioned text by Rebecca Fortnum accompanies the exhibition. In ‘Hannah and her Sisters: loss of face in the paintings of Emma Roche’ (November 2021), Fortnum perceived that Roche
“surveilles her own life with a steady eye, and requires the same commitment from her viewer - like her we must find the laughs where we can, even in the midst of the distress we absorb from daily living. By acknowledging and sharing her absurdities, sadness, even degradation, Roche changes the power dynamic - now things are no longer being done to her, she is the active party. This is crucial because these paintings are not just observational, they establish a refusal to internalise damaging stereotypes, as so often happens when the political becomes personal. In this Roche is a necessary painter for our time, and, I suggest, a painter at the top of her game.”
‘Spiders and Cheerleaders' continues until Thursday December 16th and opens from 10AM-5PM on weekdays, 12-5PM on Saturdays, and is closed on Sundays. Masks are essential, and booking is not required. The Complex Gallery Programme is proudly sponsored by The Arts Council of Ireland.
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