Opening: Wednesday 11th October, 6–8pm
Continues: Thurs 12th – Sat 14th October, 12–6pm
Introduced to Orson Welles’ iconic film, Citizen Kane, as a student at the National College of Art and Design in the 1980’s, artist Darina Meagher now revisits the film to explore the concept of ‘radioactive memory’. Citizen Kane opens with Kane on his deathbed murmuring his last word “Rosebud”. Throughout the film, “Rosebud” is the enigma which the narrator seeks to solve. It is described as a radioactive memory by Peter Bradshaw, in the Guardian Newspaper. According to Bradshaw:
Rosebud is more probably Welles’s intuition of the illusory flashback effect of memory that will affect all of us, particularly at the very end of our lives: the awful conviction that childhood memories are better, simpler, more real than adult memories – that childhood memories are the only things which are real. The remembered details of early existence – moments, sensations and images – have an arbitrary poetic authenticity which is a by- product of being detached from the prosaic context and perspective which encumbers adult minds, the rational understanding which would rob them of their mysterious force. (25 April 2015)
Through a call-out, Meagher has gathered stories and images that trigger childhood memories for the respondent, each one just as authentic to its owner as “Rosebud” was to Kane.
Darina Meagher is an Irish artist who live and works in Dublin. With an Honours B. Des and an MA in Visual Communication, from the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, she spent many years working in the area of design and visual communication.
Awarded a BA (Hons.) in Visual Arts Practice at the Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dun Laoghaire in 2011, she completed a Masters in Fine Art Painting at the NCAD, Dublin in 2014. Winner of the Peter O’Kane Solo Exhibition award at the RDS Student Awards 2011, Meagher also completed a three-month studio residency at the RHA, in 2015.
Recently, Meagher completed a residency at Arthouse, Stradbally, this was awarded to her at the Dunamaise Arts Centre, Annual Open Submissions Exhibition, in November 2016.
Meagher is a member of Visual Arts Ireland, a volunteer artist facilitator at St. Francis Hospice, Blanchardstown and is also a committee member on the Artist Network Dunlaoghaire Rathdown, (ARTNETDLR).
Meagher has exhibited extensively.