Sharon Kelly
Control Tower: Shut Up Heads and Mind Protector
2023
Cardboard, gouache on printed images, tape, plastic tubing, tape, paper, mesh, foam, acrylic, thread, needles, found doll
270 x 70 x 45 cm
The artwork is a 3-dimensional wall piece or ‘tower’ made up of 6 painted and stacked heads. Sharon Kelly has taken old prints of drawings (from a set Teste Feminilli, by Mario Grandi, acquired in Porte Portese market, Rome) and overpainted these to partially obliterate, destroy, or restrain the reading of what would otherwise have been a pleasing image of women in demure poses. In creating the piece, the artist was interested in recent historical experiences of women in Ireland, whose lives were very often controlled by church and state. The work is also in response to the historic case in Islandmagee, (north of Ireland) where the last witch trial took place in 1711.
The title also provokes reference to military watch towers that were prevalent in South Armagh during the recent Northern Ireland conflict, and which were only finally dismantled in 2006.
