GLASS Quarterly Hotsheet: What are you currently working on?
Roisin de Buitlear: I am currently working on three different projects. I'm about to install a public art commission, an architectural installation in a public library in Dublin, which is based on the Yeats poem, "Sailing to Byzantium." The concept is based on transient light as a metaphor for the transience of life. Alongside that, I am preparing drawings for my forthcoming residency at the Museum of Glass where I will begin a new series of blown work based on Damask linen and lace. I have a number of shows in the new year, in Ireland and Europe. When I return, I will start to make a series of drawings for two long entrance glazed screens for a basilica in Ireland at the Pilgrimage site in Knock, County Mayo.
GLASS: What have you seen lately that inspires you?
de Buitlear: Two outstanding experiences in the last weeks have been working with musician Liam O Maonlaoi on recording "Incantation" for our Museum of Glass Exhibition "CAUTION!" Exploring the creative possibilities of glass and sound was one of the most inspiring moments I have experienced. I have just started reading Robert McFarlane's book, "Old Ways," an account of walking which reads like a poem. It is so delicious that only small morsels can be digested at any one sitting. Both of those experiences draw on other senses! In visual terms, the act of picking olives alongside my mother in Southern France last week was an inspiration through its physical activity, and appreciating the bounty of nature and the beauty of their pure form.
GLASS: Where can we see your work?
de Buitlear: The exhibition at the Museum of Glass runs for a year, until September 2014. I am currently showing in Wexford, Ireland at the Blue Egg Gallery and at the Solomon Gallery in Dublin. Site-specific installations of blown, cast, and architectural work can be seen in public and private buildings throughout Ireland, including the Blasket Island Centre, Dun Chaoin, Co. Kerry; the National Botanical Gardens, Dublin; W5 Science Museum, Belfast; Highfield Hospital, Dublin; Castle Espie Wetland Centre; Strangford Lough, Northern Ireland; and Ballyroan Public Library, Dublin.
In 2011 to mark the National Year of Craft, the Irish Postal Service issued a national stamp featuring my work entitled, Catch a Breath. My artworks are represented in the National Museum of Ireland, Ulster Museum Belfast, and the American Crafts Council Collections.