Hilary Orpen 

About Hilary Orpen

 

My work examines the issue of identity, exploring aspects of human experience that are difficult to isolate and pin down. I use motifs from contemporary Ireland and from the past to investigate this theme. The Irish countryside, with its overload of emotional and historical resonances, animals and birds, the people themselves, who in one generation have become multicultural, all find a place in my practice.

I play with concepts of real and imaginary, live and inanimate, while still attempting to connect with an underlying emotional charge. Through paint, ceramics, photography, video and text, I am attempting to capture something of that indefinable quality, which charged with intelligence, involves hope, humanity, courage and beauty and gives expression and meaning to the perceived and lived experience of contemporary life.