CARLOW TOWN.- VISUAL is presenting Interloper, the first project by Anne Hardy in Ireland.

For this exhibition of existing and newly commissioned works, Hardy has responded to the distinct architecture of VISUAL; the concrete and glass of the Link Gallery and its connection to the ornamental pond seen through the large windows, and the blank canvas of the Studio Gallery’s white cube design and its heavily patinated floor.

Interloper marks a continued evolution in Hardy’s practice. Long known for immersive, ambitious installation work, recently this has been combined with a move towards a material-rich figuration. Here the galleries are given over to an installation that combines recognisably human components with elements of the non-human, whether animal, machine, or something else entirely. These are rooted in an embrace of and experimentation with natural materials and phenomena. The most prominent physical element in the installation is earth, shaped and moulded into patterns that suggest an archaeological dig or other excavation, one that has unearthed these figures and placed them for encounter or examination in in the gallery floors, even as they appear to still be emerging from under the water and out of the earth.

The low-hanging grids of lights that frame the installation exist where the natural world meets the industrial or technological. The lights initially appear to be malfunctioning; flickering, waxing and waning. Rather than a glitch however, the lights are programmed to change in reaction to meteorological patterns; bringing the weather into the gallery and giving physical form to the effect that outside forces can have on our experience of the world.

There are both ancient and futuristic aspects to the figures in Interloper. They resemble dinosaurs or other distant antecedents of the animal kingdom, but also cyborgs of a kind, utilising the ubiquitous and obsolete tools, materials and detritus cast off from a mechanised, industrialised and digitised world. Each figure is conceived in relation to a state of being; the physical manifestation of a feeling or experience. The material and intention behind them also contain the paradox of appearing strong but being inherently fragile; steel and stone combine with plaster, pewter, earth and wood.

Phenomena and experiences like the weather, the earth, the world, are concerns in Hardy’s work, but so too are smaller considerations and everyday experiences. A long-standing habit of Hardy’s, and an essential part of her practice, is the collecting of small objects and detritus while walking. These miscellaneous objects find their way into her practice, individual works and part of installations. Presented both as found and materially transformed through casting or other processes, these pieces take on a value and significance hitherto removed from them. In the texture and detail that these talismans bring to larger installations, Hardy is creating an imagined and yet fully realised world – one in which the human and their experience is present but has to share space with other, less easily quantifiable beings.

Anne Hardy has had exhibitions at major institutions in the UK and Europe. Recent projects include ‘Survival Spell’ Maureen Paley, London (solo) 2024; ‘The Depth of Darkness the Return of The Light’ Tate Britain Winter Commission, (solo) 2019/20; CRAZY, curated by Danilo Eccher at Chiostro del Bramante, Rome, (group) 2022; ‘Sensory Spaces #13, Liquid Landscape’, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Netherlands (solo) 2018, Museum Marta Herford Museum, Germany (group) 2018, ‘Falling and Walking’ at Leeds Art Gallery (solo) 2018 and ArtNight, London (solo) 2017. Hardy has also been invited to curate exhibitions including an invitation to work with the Arts Council Collection, where she created a site-specific sensory installation, ‘The Weather Garden’ at Towner Art Gallery, UK, 2019. In 2021/22 Hardy’s work was included in the landmark touring exhibition British Art Show 9 and in 2022 she was nominated for the Mario Merz Prize. In 2022 Hardy was artist in residence at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas, USA. Hardy’s works are held in major public collections including; Tate, Leeds Art Gallery, Towner Eastbourne, The Box Plymouth, Victoria and Albert Museum, Henry Moore Leeds, British Council, Government Art Collection, Arts Council Collection.