Deirdre Colgan Jones
“Totem Thicket,” (Detail) Terrain Biennial, Chicago (2019).
Materials: Plastic containers collected from artist and neighbors’ household, black automotive spray paint, industrial adhesive, grout, concrete & rebar. Dims: 6’-2” high x 8’-0” wide x 18” deep.
Desc: Made for the Terrain Biennial in 2019, this work was installed outside in the Lakewood Balmoral neighborhood of Chicago for six weeks. Normally we put used plastic containers into the alley behind our homes for recycling; but in Chicago we can’t trust that this actually happens. Instead I let a great volume of these accumulate for about three months, and then used them to make a landscape-like “thicket” for a neighbors’ garden. Here the plastic looms as tall as its inhabitants - proudly sitting on the front lawn for all to see.
Deirdre Colgan Jones was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland and has resided in Chicago for over 20 years. Trained as an artist and as an architect, her work is concerned with the idea of “Everyday Void,” or glimpses of the infinite in everyday life. As an artist and mother her investigations have been focused on the domestic realm. Using the accumulated flotsam and jetsam from everyday life, she builds large works like screens or towers, and makes smaller scale works such as arches, collages and recently dimensional watercolour sculptures. Deirdre works out of a home studio and has trouble finding space
in the Chicago two-bedroom apartment she shares with her husband and eight year old son who are both also working from home. Deirdre received a B.A in Fine Art from the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) in Dublin. She has an M.F.A from the California College of the Arts and a Masters in Architecture from the University of Illinois, Chicago. She has exhibited and taught design and collage in the US and Europe. She currently teaches Collage and Meditation at the Evanston Art Center, a course that is both historical survey and studio practicum.
Images top left - bottom right:
1.“Envelope Foyer,” Mudhaus Graphic Design Office, San Francisco (1998). Materials: Found window envelopes, archival glue, redwood dowel. Dims: 9'-0" high x 4'-0" wide x 30" deep.
Desc: Site-determined installation for a graphic design firm on the fifth floor of a brick building in downtown San Francisco. The office was accessed via a private elevator, with no threshold between elevator and their workspace. This lack of separation between the office interior and the outside world resulted in constant interruptions to their work. At my request, workers collected the envelopes from their business correspondence for about four months. I made a Foyer from the accumulated window envelopes, forming a room-size whole. The overall dimensions were defined by the measurements of the elevator and projected into the front of the office space, redefining the neglected space of the entry.
2. “Supported Screen I, Detail” (Print exhibited at Heaven Gallery, Chicago, Spring 2021)
Materials: Accumulation of cardboard packaging for snacks and household items were unfolded and primed with black and white gesso, then "quilted" together using archival glue. Dims: Overall: 8'-0" high x 4'-0" wide. This detail shows a section of the Screen that is 18” wide x 28’ high”.
Desc: Size determined by an existing superfluous opening in a vintage Chicago apartment. This detail shows found cardboard containers from tissue boxes, apple sauce, coffee filters, whole wheat pasta, Earl Grey tea, cookies and granola bars.
3. “Supported Screen I,” (2020)
Materials: Accumulation of cardboard packaging for snacks and household items were unfolded and primed with black and white gesso, then "quilted" together using archival glue, a 1” square wooden dowel secures the Screen to the frame of the opening. Dims: 8'-0" high x 4'-0" wide x 4” deep.
Desc: Size is determined by an existing superfluous opening in a vintage Chicago apartment home. The original opening is beside an existing open doorway. The “Supported Screen I” divides the Entry from the Living Room, with permeable openings for glimpses and views of the front door.
4. Future Relics & Cast-offs,” Vitrine Installation (Exhibition at Co-Prosperity Gallery, Bridgeport, Chicago, IL) 2012.
Materials: Concrete casts, found plastic containers, processed to clean and remove labels, Ikea Expedit shelf, Mylar backing, mirror tiles, lighting. Dims: 59” high x 59” wide x 15.5” deep.
Desc. In the future I imagine civilizations will look back at these plastic treasures and wonder about our current lives. Found containers are altered and displayed so as to imitate museum exhibitions of Greek and Roman relics.
5. “Concrete ‘Bolls’ with Wool Cocoon,” (2020).
Materials: Concrete & Cotton “Fluff.” Dims: series of 12 hand-rounded forms, ranging from 2” to 4.5” diameter.
Desc: Process explorations with the cotton waste provided by The Weaving Mill in Chicago as part of the remote 2020 WARP residency, here placed within a knitted boiled wool cocoon-like pod which connects some of the “Bolls.”
6. “Ephemeral Arch, Small” (Exhibited at Spectrum show, Stay Home Gallery, Paris, Tennessee, 2021)
Materials: Found, unfolded cardboard containers, archival glue, wire, red watercolor, gouache and flashe paint, with ink. Dims: 9.5" high x 6.5" wide x 4" deep.
Desc: Usually monumental in scale, like Calder’s “Flamingo,” in downtown Chicago; arches are the epitome of masculine authority and mark the patriarchal impulse to colonize and conquer. This series of arches celebrates the ephemeral, and are made from fragile, temporary materials. They are dedicated to the everyday successes of ordinary people doing domestic labour in the home and the world.