Crossing the Salt, Gabhann Dunne

Crossing the Salt is Dunne’s first solo institutional show and will include a significant body of new work comprising an installatiopn of over 100 paintings and a wall drawing of the Shannon basisn which will hum and run through the galleries in Pery Square over the summer months.

On encountering his new expanded series of bird paintings, the writer and critic, Cherry Smyth wrote “the movement hits you like a whoosh of air”

Dunne creates eclectic narratives to show how Ireland’s wildlife and human inhabitants have dealt with previous climate change and how we responding to the climate challenges we are now facing.  In the past hyenas roamed Munster but in the future water will be diverted from the Shannon to be consumed by millions of citizens in the greater Dublin area – an undertaking with profound implications for the environment and Irish culture.

Dunne says “the commodifying of a resource like the Shannon with all its natural and historical associations was the starting point for reflection on changes worough by the journeying on water and the migration of wildlife and what they tell us about their identity”.

Úna McCarthy, Director/ Curator of Limerick adds “that while the subject matter of Dunne’s work tends to the figurative his attention to colour and gesture leans to a more abstract form as he moves from the real to the unreal and from history to the future.

Sean Kissane, Curator at IMMA, Dublin, will make the opening remarks on the evening.