Studio Artist Spotlight | Isabel English | first-person

Isabel English, untitled (iii) from the series first-person, 2025, mixed-media sculpture, (74 x 54 x 14 cm [x-ray illuminator], 24 x 43 cm [print]); photograph by the artist.

Location: LHQ Gallery, County Library building, Carrigrohane Road, Cork, T12K335.

Opens: 5th Sept, 6 pm

Runs: 5th Sept - 24th Oct

The Complex invites you to attend 'first-person', a solo exhibition by studio member Isabel English.

Isabel English, from Ballyhea in County Cork, is a visual artist and educator based in Dublin. Isabel’s work utilises the mediums of photography, textile and sculpture, to extend from the literary genre of autofiction, which combines autobiographical truths with fictionalised renderings, to create contextually sensitive installations.

In 'first-person', Isabel uses images of bodily anatomy, taken from A Manual of Artistic Anatomy by John C.L. Sparkes (London: Bailliere, Tindall and Cox, 1888) as a source for the work. These images have been spliced and rendered beyond recognition and presented to the viewer as enlarged scans on assorted sheets of acetate. These actions are reflected in a number of wall based sculptural pieces made from disposable patterned aluminium plating, replicating the composition of honeycomb cardboard, generally used as protective packaging in the shipment and transportation of goods. These processes of repetition, which underline much of English’s practice, refers to the psychological concept of Repetition Compulsion, as underlined by Freud in his essay ‘Beyond the Pleasure Principle’ first published in German in 1920, as an unconscious tendency to repeat patterns of behaviour.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication produced by Isabel in which Cork-based arts writer Sarah Long and poet Julie Morrissy have written about Isabel’s work.

Isabel was awarded the inaugural Emerging Visual Artist Award from Cork County Council in 2024. Isabel was awarded the inaugural Emerging Visual Artist Award from Cork County Council in 2024. This award provides a bursary and the opportunity to have a solo exhibition at LHQ Gallery.