Vivienne Roche’s approach is formally beautiful and seemingly straightforward in its address, but opens onto profound and unsettling ideas about time, loss and persistence, writes Sarah Kelleher
Vivienne Roche has exhibited internationally throughout her career. However, she is best known for her public sculpture. Prominent examples include her NC Iris (2006), the 14.5 metre-high flower sculpture outside the National College of Ireland in Dublin’s docklands, and her White Light Garden (2006) in Park West, Dublin, a mammoth, three-acre public garden that transforms at night into an extensive light artwork tracing the archaeology of the early Christian burial site over which it is made. Her exhibition at the Royal Hibernian Academy offers an insight into the development of these projects, presenting Roche’s exploratory drawings and material studies alongside recent works.
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