Róisín de Buitléar
I have been fascinated by glass as much for its beauty as the challenge of working with it. I am continually inspired by the endless creative possibilities that glass offers. I make small scale
objects and large installations for public and private buildings. I work in layers, using the inherent beauty of the material to draw the viewer into the pieces through light, shadow and colour. At the core of the work are stories of my culture and these are told by using pattern, colour, form and the characteristics of the material. These stories are important to me to explain and share with others. In my recent work, I am paying homage to traditional crafts such as needle work, by translating what is perceived as ‘ordinary’ into the realm of the extraordinary – using glass as the ‘new’ medium so this hand work can be viewed with a fresh perspective.
Honeyed Meadow
This piece encompasses all that I love about glass, the qualities of the material and what they can bring to an idea. I am constantly drawn to the magic of capturing the movement of molten glass in its solid form, the memory of a breath visualised. In order to make this piece I worked with a team, in a gentle dance in front of the furnace, coaxing and shaping the glass until it became the form I had in my mind.
This piece speaks of a carefree time of tripping through a meadow as a child, unconscious of time and chasing the elusive. There is a certain wistfulness expressed in this work, in wanting to remember to make time to dawdle, to see the beauty in the ordinary, and to celebrate the little things we can so quickly forget when life gets too busy.
This is also a homage to great craftsmen and women; glass makers who championed this beautiful technique and to the detailed hand work of lace makers. In spending hours engraving the pattern a rhythmic movement emerges not unlike the fluid movement an experienced lace maker would make. Each tiny movement is recorded in the surface and comes together as an overall fragile image, an interweaving of technique and time. In that image there is a similarity to my own story, an intricate combination of experiences and tradition which I want to share with others.
Education
1987- date Self-employed artist, Ireland and France
1980-83 NCAD Diploma Glass Design 1st. Class Hons
Awards
2010 Residency; Museum of Glass Tacoma Washington USA
2009 Crafts council Of Ireland Bursary 2009
2002 Nomination Corning Glass Award USA 2002
2001 Pilchuck Glass School Scholarship Seatle USA
1986 Travel Grant Dept. Foreign Affairs
1985 Artist in Residence Northern Arts Council England
1984 RDS Exhibition
Group Exhibitions
2002 ‘Sculpture in Context’, Botanic Gardens Dublin, selected show
2003 ‘GLAOINE’, National Museum of Ireland Dublin, selected show
RHA Annual Exhibition, Dublin, selected show
2004 Faculty Show Pilchuck Gallery, Seattle, USA
Irish Contemporary Glass, Waterford, Kilkenny, Dublin, Ireland
Irish Contemporary Glass, National Museum, Belfast
2007 ‘DÉPART’, Two person show Dublin
2008 Contemporary Irish Glass, Belturbet, Northern Ireland
Summer Exhibition, Smithfield, Dublin, selected group show
2009 ‘On the edge’ Selected show, Cheltenham England.
National Waterfront Gallery, Swansea, Wales
Torre Abbey, Torquay, England
Catherine Hammond Gallery, Glengarriff, Ireland
‘Visions in Glass’, Selected exhibition, Jerpoint, Ireland.
2010 On the Edge Crafts Council Gallery Kilkenny Ireland, National Botanical Gardens Dublin
Solo Exhibitions
1992 Ulster Museum, Belfast
1990 Design Aer 90’, Dublin Airport
Commissions
Blasket Island Centre, County Kerry, 1994 (OPW) Glass installation, 5m x 12m
Photography Centre, Temple Bar, Dublin, 1994 (O’Donnell+Tuomey)
Glass Screen, 5 x 2.5m and cast glass wall installation, 3m x 30cm Part of the Temple Bar rejuvenation initiative
National Botanical Gardens 1997 (OPW) Appliqued Glass Screen Herbarium Building
National Museum, Belfast W5 Science Centre 2001 (Museums of Northern Ireland) 42 Carved Glass Screens 3m x 1.5m
Civic Museum Galway, OPW 2007 Glass and tensile steel installation 24m x 3m Spanish Arch Galway
Pobal Scoil Chorca Dhuibhne Dingle, Co. Kerry 2008 ( Percent for art scheme Collaborative work. Steel, concrete 24m x 6m
Castle Espie Wetland Centre, Strangford Lough, Northern Ireland 2009 Glass installation 14m x 2m
Collections
Crafts Council of Ireland, 1985-86
Miharu Ando Gallery Collection, 1986
Irish Embassy, Japan 1986
Crafts Council of America, 1990
Ulster Museum, Belfast, 1992
The President of Ireland, Mary Robinson, 1993
The President of Portugal - presented by Mary Robinson, 1993
The Queen of Spain - presented by Mary Robinson 1993
National Museum Of Ireland 2007
Publications
‘Creativity and Motherhood’ selected essays - ‘Motherhood in Ireland’, edited by Patricia. Kennedy, Phd. 2004
New Glass Review 25, Corning Museum of Glass, 2004
‘Lustre and Fire’ Irish Arts Review Autumn, 2003
‘Contemporary Glass’, The Encyclopaedia of Ireland, Gill and MacMillan, 2003
Royal Hibernian Academy, One Hundred and Seventy Third Exhibition Catalogue 2003, p78.
‘Contemporary Glass In Ireland’ Artists in Glass Berengo Fine Arts 2002
Glass Art Society, Glass Journal USA, Memory and Invention, Contemporary Irish Glass 2007
‘Cullenswood House Old Ghosts New Stories’. Falmer edited by Victoria White, 2009.