Review In The Munster Express
6th May 2005
Liam Murphy

The Rayleen Clancy exhibition in Dungarvan was the highlight of Féile na nDéise. Aspects of her work are stunning and beautiful. While the exhibition title, Embedded in Time, is a bit of a misnomer, for me this is work in transition, a move to a new key, a deepening of technique and a partial return to shadowy contexts emerging as from a faded photograph. It is a partial move away from the figurative work but CAUGHT IN THE UNDERGROWTH is a wonderful study of a boy in a river. Lots of detail as in a photograph.

Each wall of this bijou gallery shows different aspects of one of the most exciting young artists working in the Waterford area. There is a red, warm sequence of insects, butterflies and telegraph poles, that express a turbulence and energy that flickers on your eyes. You can sense the energy as if you were walking under electricity pylons. There is a line from Arthur Millar's great play Death Of A Salesman –the woods are on fire—and Rayleen Clancy catches that undercurrent of turbulence so well.

There are a lot of skylines in this exhibition, telegraph poles in the sky, dogweed in the sky and birds winging it above dirty messy images of pond-life. An oil on canvas called SOAR does just that.

On another wall there is the exciting life in a dark green river of dreams in PERPETUAL RIPPLES and CROSSCURRENTS. The ripples in PERPETUAL RIPPLES has a hypnotic impact on the viewer.

But it is the stunning wide screen view of AFTERGLOW, of a girl on the left and a boy on the right in silhouette in a landscape that pulses with colour into a twilight sky. Enchanting.