- Venue
- Ceri Hand Gallery
- Location
- North West England
This is the first solo show of Samantha Donelly’s at Ceri Hand and I feel glad (selfishly) that she waited until her work was at this point to do it. Her slender straggly sculptures carry a lot of weight and the artist’s research, considerate approach and fascination for her subject are evident throughout.
The press release describes the show as “drawing on Simon Schama’s interpretation of The Ecstasy of St Theresa (1644-1647, Gian Lorenzo Bernini) in the BBC TV series The Power of Art.” I though it was interesting then how the volume and creation of space that I might expect from this Baroque reference were physically quite deflated in the work, but their influence still evident. Many of the works seems to speak of absence with the feeling of things stopped and abandoned mid-activity. There is also a human absence; if the sculptures don’t have hands themselves (St Teresa’s own; grasping, reaching, clasped) then they suggest touch and mark-making; the sweep of a pencil across the floor or the point of an object ready to make its mark. The works contain a lot of humour and I found myself smiling frequently, but they’re also tinged with a bit of something quite bleak; disappointment or longing maybe.
I loved the rich referencing in the exhibition, the ease of making links and having little connections fire off all over the place. It’s exciting and cohesive without being repetitious and was a pleasure to spend time in.
