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Lot Essay
Executed in 2008, Ged Quinn's vast The Inventor of False Memory was exhibited at the 2008 Liverpool Biennial to popular acclaim. A modern narrative that has been overlaid onto a perfectly rendered 17th century Romantic landscape, it offers a contemporary and poignant twist on the historical themes of the past, notably those of Jacob van Ruisdael, J.M.W. Turner and Théodore Géricault.
The Inventor of False Memory exposes Quinn's thoughts as he creates a dreamlike scenario reflecting on reality, but also apart from it. There is a great deal of allegorical statement within the densely detailed surfaces, ranging from a saint's reliquary containing a body that is part human part bird, to a version of Dante's circles of hell that resembles a form of Death Star. The drama of the scene is heightened by the monumental scale of the work, which leaves the sky dominating the viewer and exposes the different elements, from the antiquarian to the modern (such as turntables and sinks).
The various references within Quinn's canvases collide and sit awkwardly with each other, yet through the strange familiarity of their sources, they edge towards a resolution of a kind. The title of the work references 'False Memory Syndrome', a condition in which a person's identity and relationships are affected by memories which are factually incorrect but strongly believed.
Derived from Jacob van Ruisdael's Stormy Sea with Sailing Vessels (c.1668), Quinn's meticulous painterly execution and complete control of the brush rivals van Ruisdael's style and embodies Quinn's capacity to revisit the tradition of European 17th century landscape painting. Turner's Fishing Boats Bringing a Disabled Ship into Port Ruysdael (c.1844) also provides inspiration for the composition as does his Slavers Throwing overboard the Dead and Dying Typhoon Coming On (c. 1840) which is referenced in pieces of the raft that float away towards the viewer. In Turner's work, these remnants were the slaves floating away to their death, and one can see in Quinn's work the drowning body of the rafts passenger. The image is macabre but embraces another seminal masterpiece of Romanticism, Théodore Géricault's Raft of the Medusa (1819).
Quinn's ability to combine numerous different references in a way that they all hang together is testament to his mastery of spatial perception and compositional organization. He leaves the viewer guessing and putting together the different elements. As Quinn once explained, 'what I do is add pieces. Truncated stories, half stories, unfinished sentences that hang in the air. Something that might have happened that youre unaware of here' [https://www.artslant.com/ny/artists/rackroom/39544] The result is an uneasy, powerful vision that lingers like an unfinished dream, balancing on the very edge of reality.
The Inventor of False Memory exposes Quinn's thoughts as he creates a dreamlike scenario reflecting on reality, but also apart from it. There is a great deal of allegorical statement within the densely detailed surfaces, ranging from a saint's reliquary containing a body that is part human part bird, to a version of Dante's circles of hell that resembles a form of Death Star. The drama of the scene is heightened by the monumental scale of the work, which leaves the sky dominating the viewer and exposes the different elements, from the antiquarian to the modern (such as turntables and sinks).
The various references within Quinn's canvases collide and sit awkwardly with each other, yet through the strange familiarity of their sources, they edge towards a resolution of a kind. The title of the work references 'False Memory Syndrome', a condition in which a person's identity and relationships are affected by memories which are factually incorrect but strongly believed.
Derived from Jacob van Ruisdael's Stormy Sea with Sailing Vessels (c.1668), Quinn's meticulous painterly execution and complete control of the brush rivals van Ruisdael's style and embodies Quinn's capacity to revisit the tradition of European 17th century landscape painting. Turner's Fishing Boats Bringing a Disabled Ship into Port Ruysdael (c.1844) also provides inspiration for the composition as does his Slavers Throwing overboard the Dead and Dying Typhoon Coming On (c. 1840) which is referenced in pieces of the raft that float away towards the viewer. In Turner's work, these remnants were the slaves floating away to their death, and one can see in Quinn's work the drowning body of the rafts passenger. The image is macabre but embraces another seminal masterpiece of Romanticism, Théodore Géricault's Raft of the Medusa (1819).
Quinn's ability to combine numerous different references in a way that they all hang together is testament to his mastery of spatial perception and compositional organization. He leaves the viewer guessing and putting together the different elements. As Quinn once explained, 'what I do is add pieces. Truncated stories, half stories, unfinished sentences that hang in the air. Something that might have happened that youre unaware of here' [https://www.artslant.com/ny/artists/rackroom/39544] The result is an uneasy, powerful vision that lingers like an unfinished dream, balancing on the very edge of reality.