Dougal McKenzie exhibits new and recent paintings at the Ashford Gallery of the RHA from the 5th to the 26th of January.
Featuring a series of Modernist influenced paintings and works on paper, Paintings from Old Europe deals with history and narrative in particular the famous battle at Culloden between the Jacobites and Hanoverians in 1746 and more recent developments in post-war Eastern Bloc Europe.
Working within the limitation painting faces in accurately interpreting 'facts', McKenzie attempts to open a visual dialogue between picture and content to activate a space where alternative viewings of history can take place.
Such a space is normally occupied and conditioned by the legacies of the past, or personal experiences of the present, which often prevents radical positions emerging from historical narration.
Investigating history and narrative, McKenzie focuses on the decisive battle between Jacobites and Hanoverians at Drumossie Moor in 1746, better known as Culloden.
This episode in European history was played out against the backdrop of wider power struggles between Protestant and Catholic interest around the Continent which still has a strong resonance in Northern Ireland and to a lesser extent retains a grip on Scot's heritage.
Two of the paintings in Paintings from Old Europe, represent imaginary scenes leading up to Culloden, perhaps appearing to the viewer to take place in more contemporary settings that would normally be associated with this period of history.
Newer paintings like A Tiger From Socci focus on a more recent period of history in Eastern Bloc Europe, taking imagery from holiday slides taken by McKenzie's maternal grandparents on trips to the USSR and Romania in the early 1970's.
Strongly Modernist in their influences, the paintings keeps the subject of the work and the stylistic methods employed entirely separate from one another. The alienation of style from content creates a new space for reinterpretations of history to take place in.
Opening Hours:
Tuesday to Saturday: 11am - 5pm
Thursday: 11am - 8pm
Sunday: 2pm - 5pm
Royal Hibernian Academy
15 Ely Place
Dublin 2.
Tel: +353 (0) 1 661 2558
Web: RHA
Images: OEWaiting for Colonel Pole (Culloden Scene III), 156 x 168, oil, destemper, green board paint, charcoal and oilbar on linen, image courtesy of the artist
