Roscommon Arts Centre

March 12 – June 6, 2013

Eleanor Duffin explores the subtle relationship between objects and humans. She questions why we are drawn to certain inanimate objects. Is there an immaterial force that connects us to these objects? Plato wrote about Anima Mundi, which was the idea that the planet has a soul that is somehow connected to all living bodies that inhabit it. Similarly, Totemism, an important element of tribal cultures believes the power of inanimate objects to hold “conscious” spirits that interact with society. In recent times, there has being a crisis in faith and from this spiritual void there is a return to more philosophical notions of how we inhabit the world. We have become defined by what we consume or desire, in this exhibition the artist pares back visual elements that pique our visual senses allowing us to experience different materials with a more heightened sense of awareness.

In a time where our levels of sophistication in terms of technology and how we inhabit the world is changing rapidly this return to ideas of animism, which can seem quite basic or archaic are really the fundamentals from where culture emerged. Global and ecological crisis and the failure of the capitalist system have been instrumental in our shift to appreciating the materiality and signification of the elements that surround us.