Sara Cunningham-Bell: CONGRUENT

8 June – 2 September 2024

The F.E. McWilliam Gallery and Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council are delighted to present Congruent, a new body of work by sculptor Sara Cunningham-Bell. Based in her studio on the North Coast of Ireland, Cunningham-Bell works with storm-felled local timber including larch, maple, beach and oak, combined with upcycled lead and steel, GRP (Glass Reinforced Plastic), concrete and bronze. Made through a variety of processes including carving, casting, sanding and staining, Cunningham-Bell’s sculptures often reveal the layered traces of their creation.

Congruent means a coming together in agreement or harmony and Cunningham-Bell’s approach is to juxtapose seemingly disparate elements and materials to create forms that demand our attention. Her sculptures explore the domesticity of objects alongside their materiality and the processes that inform and form them.

Speaking of this new body of sculpture Sara said,

In the seventeenth century, philosopher Nicolas Malebranche called attention ‘the natural prayer of the soul’. In the twentieth century, novelist Iris Murdoch spoke of attentiveness as a way of deepening ‘experience to such a degree that a change of consciousness can be achieved’. Our indifference is exposed, interrupted, and challenged. To induce such a remembering, these sculptures are conceived to perpetually provoke attention.

Sara Cunningham-Bell has created public sculpture for sites throughout Ireland and her work is currently on view at the Himalayan Garden and Sculpture Park in North Yorkshire, Drenagh Gardens, Limavady and Chongqing, China. She is a member of the Visual Artists Ireland and Society of Scottish Artists.

Instagram: @Artist.CunninghamBell