Glór reopens with Sinterella exhibition

FOR the first time since last October, Glór opened its doors to the public last Thursday, with an exhibition by three artists.
“It’s lovely to have the doors open again. We were due to have our cafe open this Monday but with all the uncertainty we’ve postponed that until next month,” said director of Glór Orla Flanagan.
“It’s absolutely fabulous to have the doors open again, we’re really looking forward to inviting people in to see the work in the galleries. Down the road we’re looking forward to welcoming people back to live performances in the space.”
She expects that to come in the early autumn. “Basically Clare County Council have invested in upgrading our heating and ventilation systems and that’s not completed until the end of August, so there’s a practical reason for opening from September and there’s also the uncertainty with everything.”
After a number of months of closure, quite a lot of preparation had to be done to reopen.
“Just in terms of getting the place tidy and clean and organised, given that we’ve been closed a while, there was stuff accumulating in corners and all of that.
“Everyone was all hands on deck and it was really lovely to welcome the three artists who are included in the exhibition this afternoon, and they seemed really pleased with the exhibition. We had happy artists leaving the building and that’s a nice thing.”
It reopened for Sinterella, an exhibition of work from artists Martha Cashman, Annita McKee and Insaf Yalcinkaya.
Sintering is the process of fusing powder-based materials into a solid state through a reaction to high temperature. In clay work, sintering is when particles stick together permanently, and the work is considered fully fired.
Sinterella is a group exhibition produced to explore the idea of telling stories through material. Each artist chose her material as a method to express a narrative.
Cashman and McKee’s projects respond to useful household objects and use the clay to
explore the pebbles to tell different stories, perhaps less utilitarian, about our life and our
history. By taking the objects out of their original contexts, both artists offer brand new
narratives for us to think about when seeing a chair, or a spoon. It is an opportunity to
reconsider the potential in everything that surrounds us.
Yalcinkaya uses plaster, a material “cousin” of clay, to connect a Kurdish mythological
narrative to her life in Ireland. The piece will progress throughout the exhibition period to offer
engagement with the artist’s writing about the visual artwork, and her journey to Ireland.
Sinterella is being accompanied by a series of free workshops for children and young peopl facilitated by Vicky Smith and Nathalie El Baba.

by Owen Ryan