CAG.3291 Isabel Nolan, The Light Poured Out of You, 2016, mild steel, paint, dye, fabric, dye 300 x 134 x 134 cm. Purchased, 2023.

WORK OF THE WEEK!

The Light Poured Out of You (2016) by Isabel Nolan is a chandelier-like sculpture which, instead of offering a source of illumination, is draped with lengths of hand-dyed cotton.

In resisting the customary grandeur and purpose of such forms, this artwork is deliberately provisional, dysfunctional, and unceremonious. ‘The frayed, lightweight fabric falls elegantly in straight and curved lines, absorbing and blocking light, but refuses resolutely to offer any to the space’ in which it is suspended.

The fabric, suggestive of dust sheets, is by turns colourful and dark, perhaps evocative of stained glass within a spiritual interior. The force with which it drains and pours from the artwork’s steel structure conveys an emotional, even existential resonance – echoed in this work’s title – consistent with the artist’s interest in the ‘intimacy of materiality.’   

The Light Poured Out of You was previously exhibited at EVA International (2018) and entered the National Collection at Crawford Art Gallery earlier this year.

Isabel Nolan (b.1974) has an expansive practice that incorporates sculpture, painting, textile, photography, writing, and works on paper. Her subject matter is similarly comprehensive, taking in cosmological phenomena, religious reliquaries, Greco-Roman sculptures, and literary/historical figures, examining the behaviour of humans and animals alike. These diverse artistic investigations are driven by intensive research, but the end result is always deeply personal and subjective.

The Light Poured Out of You (2016) by Isabel Nolan is featured in FOLLOWING THREADS until 28 January. Open daily, except 25-26 December and 1 January.

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