Materialising in the Almost-Shadow

The exhibition, ‘Penumbra’, can be situated alongside exhibitions of works by contemporary female artists from across the island of Ireland. These exhibitions have sought to address the invisibility of such work. ‘Penumbra’ presents us with a range of material practices that are reimagining and transgressing the terrain of what defines Ireland and Irish cultural identity. This hinges upon a resurgence in concerns for the materiality of paint itself as the very site of meaning. ‘Penumbra’ comes from the Latin paene ‘almost’ and umbra ‘shadow’ meaning a shaded spot, or the outer part of a conical darkness cast behind a celestial object by a light source. In this text, I will reflect on how the works in this exhibition bring into the frame that which was always hauntingly present, located in the half-light across the ‘Penumbra’.