Art and the Internet at Nenagh Library

This is a solo exhibition by Chris Hayes, a former student of Nenagh CBS. After completing his studies in the Limerick School of Art and Design, Hayes now writes a weekly arts column for the Limerick Leader and is the Co-Director of Ormston House. Hayes won the Collector General’s Merit Prize and was featured in the Irish Arts Review’s graduate selection in 2015.

In this exhibition, the paintings depict computer pixels, glitches and eye-catching article colours. When talking about the series of paintings, Hayes said: “Oil paint was originally developed to depict human skin. So, when I paint digital manipulations of hands holding phones, the artworks begin to nod towards the history of painting. This conversation between the digital and physical is what I’m really interested in as an artist.”

Technology, and more specifically, the influence of technology on culture is important to Hayes as an artist. With the support of Limerick City and County Council, he has recently undertaken a series of workshops at the Fab Lab, a digital fabrication centre. At the Fab Lab, people are able to turn digital files into physical objects, through laser cutting, CNC routers, and even, 3D printing. Additionally, Hayes has recently finished a course in Excel, a software commonly used for accounting spreadsheets. Yet, with Excel Hayes hopes to use data, and patterns within large bodies of data, to develop 3D models which could be fabricated through laser cutting or 3D printing, exist as images online, and influence future paintings.

This exhibition contains six paintings, which are taken from two previous projects. This is the first time they will be exhibited together, and bring different, but connected, interests together. Two of the paintings depict scenes from an urban landscape, one showing an American flag and the other a more generic motorway with gridlocked traffic. The original images for these paintings were sourced from security cameras around the world, which often without the owners realising, broadcast online for all the world to see. Some of the paintings are more abstract, and their intensely artificial colour palette and unusual waving shapes refer to digital manipulation of images. Others continue this thread of digital manipulation, but show twisted and stretched hands holding phones. Throughout, painterly gestures and references to computer screens and digital images can be seen.

This is the second time Hayes has shown at Nenagh Library, and despite working in Limerick since finishing college, maintaining a connection to Tipperary is important to him. “I always find it hugely rewarding to exhibit in Tipperary, because I remember how important it was for me as a young person to see art and artists. It’s vital, I think, that despite where you go or who you know, you maintain your roots.”

The exhibition continues through July, and the artist can be contacted on Twitter at username @DeleteChris. Each painting is on sale for €100 or less.