From the Gallery Director:
Curators and art historians chronicle, record, present, and strive to explain the importance and influence art has in our lives. Art, the making of objects, provides visual narrative for the artist/creator and for the viewer. Content and context, regardless of stated intent, encourages if not demands personal interpretation. Art is, after all, a participatory activity.

Daithi O'Glaisain shares strong, complex sculptural statements that are enigmatic as they are straightforward. Organic and manipulated charred elements emerge from complex figural and structural contours. Being and identity are questioned in these elegant inquiries. Although the artist determined the title Vanish over six months ago, it resonates with new meaning since the events of 9/11/01. One cannot forget the images and magnitude without considering the metaphor - to rescue and rebuild from charred remnants, the strength of the spirit to emerge. For O'Glaisain the subject is intensely personal; for the viewer however, it is but a suggestion.

Diane DiSalvo, gallery director
November 2001

At Villa Julie's annual Halloween bonfire, the artist chars the wood that will be incorporated into his presentation.

From the artist:
Reflecting on my recent sculpture, there are a number of recurring themes - and some unknowns - that weave in and out of the collective body of work. The common thread in all of this work is an exploration of ideas that reflect on the meaning of loss, an attempt to understand its power and significance as a means to counter experiences of personal loss.

There are strong references to fractured architectural, anatomical and biological detail as metaphors for decay, neglect, repression and futility. These metaphoric and suggestive statements particularly address the notion of the inevitability of loss.

This current work explores in depth the notion of this fractured detail as emotive metaphor. There are instances of 'bleak wastelands' that have 'lively underworlds,' columns that are spliced and patched together, and structures that have delicate buttress walls that preserve charred or eroded interiors. There are references to muscle atrophy and fractured bones that appear unlikely to mend. There are tentative and precarious connections that look fragile and stressed.

Much of this work is presented as artifacts; various objects and parts of objects grouped or pinned together as records or memories of events. Other works appear determined to retard or slow the certainty of erosion with buttress walls, buffer zones or splints.

While my work remains absorbed by personal themes of division, loss and neglect, it is important for me that it transcend that to evoke parallels to similar issues in society, or conflicts in an individual's psyche.

Daithi O' Glaisain
March 2000