UPCOMING EXHIBITION
‘STAY AWHILE’ at Chateau La Coste, France
September 17 - November 4
Château La Coste is pleased to present an exhibition of new tapestries, embroideries and paintings by Irish artist Domino Whisker titled ‘Stay Awhile’, her first major solo show outside of Ireland. These works reflect the beauty that the artist has found in her journey through grief and the resulting shift in her being. At a first glance, intricately embroidered birds ‘in flight and fright’ and tapestries depicting seascapes and stormy skies may seem dark, yet, if the viewer were to ‘stay awhile’, glimpses of hope and light shine through.
Birds in flight serve as a central motif in this exhibition, intricately mapping Whisker’s emotional journey. Birds, often black crows, initially came to her during the pandemic, when the world was confined and yearned for freedom. Gradually, these creatures took on a wilder and more foreboding nature. Swooping and diving, they seemed poised to strike — a physical manifestation of the tumultuous emotions that consumed Whisker. Through the act of stitching these crows, the artist found a means to comprehend her grief. Now finding beauty within her embroideries, the birds became a symbol of hope, offering comfort and solace.
Whisker will present new large-scale tapestries that continue these themes in scenes depicting stormy skies and turbulent seas. These hand-tufted tapestries use wool sourced from Donegal Yarns, the last woollen mill in Ireland, thereby maintaining a meaningful connection to her home country. A captivating group of four new pill-shaped tapestries continue Whisker’s previous series ‘Remember To Take Your Pills, The Pills That Make You Happy’. Whereas the earlier works were solid in colour, these pills evolved with the artist into vibrant, imaginative compositions, each featuring an architectural world with stairs and doorways, castles and vast skies with sunsets.
ABOUT CHÂTEAU LA COSTE
Situated in one of the oldest winemaking regions of France, between the historic city of Aix-En-Provence and the Luberon National Park, Château La Coste is a vineyard where wine, art and architecture co-exist in harmony. Since it opened to the public in 2011, Château La Coste invites visitors to discover over forty major works of contemporary art installed in the open air and five gallery spaces dotted across the 500-acre site.
Each year artists and architects are invited to visit the domain and discover the unique beauty of this Provençal landscape, with its famed cypresses, stone pines, olive trees and ancient oaks. They are given the freedom to create a site-specific work in an area of the site that inspires them, so Château La Coste continues to evolve as new projects and installations are developed. Artists and architects who have created permanent works at Château La Coste include Frank O. Gehry, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Louise Bourgeois, Richard Rogers, Sophie Calle, Tracey Emin and Jean Nouvel.