Isabel Nolan

AN ANSWER ABOUT FIRST THING

2014
mild steel, wire, mesh, plaster bandage, jesmonite, and paint
21 3/4 x 19 3/4 x 20 7/8 inches

Artworks thrive in a space of necessary failures and missed objectives. They are willful and stubbornly refuse to be fully instrumentalised or to ever be wholly in control of their own meaning or ends. I thought I was making a show that considered disintegration and failure. In the process, I learned more about the treachery of beauty than disintegration. – Isabel Nolan

The artistic explorations of Isabel Nolan lead her to create a wide-ranging body of work – wool rugs and wall hangings, artist text, stained glass, coiled steel, and tangled plaster objects – in her search for answers to universal questions about life. Her recent series of plaster sculptures engage with space, both the internal negative space of the work and the physical space the object fills in the gallery. In An Answer about the First Thing, the sculpture prompts the viewer to move about the piece in an attempt to better understand its form. The composition changes from every angle, adding time and perspective as essential elements of the work.