Rachel Joynt

Commendation

Born in Co. Kerry, Rachel Joynt studied Fine Art (Sculpture) at the National College of Art & Design, Dublin and has completed a number of high-profile public art commissions, including Perpetual Motion (with Remco de Fouw) on the N7 Naas Bypass and People’s Island at O’Connell Street Bridge, Dublin. Her practice is largely sculptural and installation-based.

Her work is generally figurative, modelled from nature, and in particular, from sea forms. She is interested in our human relationship with underwater creatures, both physically and metaphorically. Scale is also important, and she often transforms and challenges the viewer’s usual viewpoint by using different magnifications to scale up her subjects. Permanence, transience and flux are recurring themes in her work and her use of sand, light, glass, bronze and cast iron underline this. She creates visual illusions and allows familiar forms to take on fresh, unexpected shapes. Place and context are key to her public art pieces, and she often involves the viewer in her work by inserting ‘eyepieces’ or glowing interior lights that invite closer inspection and contemplation.

Rachel Joynt applied for a Golden Fleece Award to buy herself the time and space required to embark on an intensive period of research and development towards a new body of work for exhibition using bronze shell casting and experimental reflective optical effects. It would allow her to focus on her own work, rather than having to seek deadline-driven public art commissions.