This new body of work takes its inspiration from ‘Visions of Genius,’ a major Hieronymus Bosch exhibition in his native city, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, which Hanrahan visited in 2016. The Haywain triptych in particular captivated Hanrahan and sparked an interest in ontology, the branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of being.
The exhibition explores how entities are read or perceived within a landscape or spatial scene. In the text, The Ontology of Landscapes by Adam Andrzejewski and Matusz Slawa, the writers observe that philosophers typically consider the landscape in terms of 18th-century concepts and early modern painting as picturesque. They propose an alternative theory: an experience-based landscape ontology, seeing landscapes as perspectival entities. Hanrahan uses this theory as a substructure for his interest in ontology, relating it to how viewers frame narratives within his work. By experiencing aesthetic appreciation and reading the surface as a story, the viewer becomes present with the work, questioning the stories within it and evoking psychological memories and experiences.
Seán Hanrahan is a multidisciplinary artist based in Cork city, working in print, photography, installation & collaborative practice. He is based at Backwater Artists’ Studios. He has also been a member of Cork Printmakers for 20 years. He has worked on several projects & exhibited internationally. Recent projects/ exhibition – Artist in residence at IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art), where he produced a site-specific flag Project Memory Anthem for IMMA’s A Radical Plot residency program August-October 2021. Facebook Artist in Residence (AIR) program, where he produced a large-scale mural for their Cork Oculus laboratory offices.
Drawing upon art historical and sociological sources, his practice incorporates a com- bination of philosophical inquiry and material investigation. Working in a wide range of media from traditional to unconventional, Hanrahan’s practice is process-driven and informed by site-specific research, through personal experience of engaging with social and political concerns. For him, this is the core aspect of being an artist, to examine our physical world and society, to interpret, interrogate and disseminate ideas through creative practice.
