Safekeeping

Opening night: Thursday 12 June, Late Night Art East 6–8:30pm

‘The mountain grass cannot but keep the form where the mountain hare has lain’ (W. B. Yeats Memory 1919)

Safekeeping speaks of the landscape inside and out. Working semi-abstractly, McKeown explores the idea of series through the repetition of shapes and forms. Nature and the human figure recur in a constant process of emotive search. Playing with the positives and negatives of collage, successive ideas unfold oneirically to create intimate narratives.

The intentional placing or setting aside of an object so as not to lose or break. The act of safekeeping relies on memory and the retracing of the landscape that is etched upon it. The fragile area between recollection and imagination.

‘A heart that is distant creates a wilderness round it’ (Tao Qian I Built My Hut Translation by Arthur Whaley)

In this exhibition, the term safekeeping alludes to a specific object, the heart. So safely placed inside the wilderness only an indent of what was once there remains. With a focus on materiality, McKeown works with offcuts and found objects to extend this practice of safekeeping through the reconsideration and manipulation of disregarded materials.

This project is supported by the National Lottery through the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.