DOCKLANDS

Opening address by the

Lord Mayor of Cork Cllr. Deirdre Forde

‘DOCKLANDS’ is Celina Buckley’s first solo exhibition in Cork and features a collection of fine art collages, mostly created on location over a period of two years. The exhibition ‘DOCKLANDS’ all started with the news that the 33.3m high R & H Hall building which has dominated the skyline in the Cork City docklands for 90 years is going to be demolished. Celina Buckley visited the docklands one morning last year to preserve the history of the building by making a fine art collage on location. This then went on to inspire an entire exhibition. Art must defend the uncertain. Nothing is a finished project, always a beginning. It would be wonderful if a space for artists existed on the Cork Docklands site which is due to be redeveloped very soon. In Dublin, the Port Company and the Arts Council are working together to explore the options of creating an Artists’ Campus within the Odlums Flour Mills site.

Buckley’s art is created through the medium of collage. Using print-making techniques she learned in the print room at Cambridge School of Art; her collage papers are prepared using oil-based etching inks, an etching press and by mono-printing various textures onto the surfaces. Almost all of her fine art collages are created on location from observation, and if needs be, finished in her studio. The human and natural environment are a living source of inspiration for her collages. Once she is on location with the easel set up, it becomes a multi-sensory experience for her. Some have called these moments ‘epiphanies’, but for her it is discovering a visual language that conveys that excitement - being alert to the extraordinary in the ordinary.