Recovering Catholics
An exhibition by D!VE & Patrick Ireland 3000 at Retramp Gallery 28th March - 7th April 2024
Statues blown apart and religious paintings re-defined for our time. Irish artists D!VE and Patrick Ireland 3000 reinterpret Christian iconography to challenge the symbols of their youth and reflect on a country whose history is intertwined with Catholicism. Printmaking and analogue techniques are key for the pair who are determined to engage with these iconic images on their own terms.Working together for the exhibition, they have pushed each other’s processes and brought obsessive natures close to the boundary of absurdity, moving works repeatedly between their different techniques to create the style swap prints and exhibition ephemera. Ireland 3000 began his work as a means to explore how Christianity has formed the foundations of our society, shaping our perceptions of morality, spirituality, and even aesthetics. However, during and due to the arduous creative process, the work evolved to become an exploration of his artistic self-belief. Ireland 3000’s unique approach to creating these prints involved using a jigsaw power tool to cut and draw shapes into the wood, resulting in the distinctive style. The prints are then hand-printed, without the use of a printing press, which added a layer of physicality to an already intricate process. This technique allows Ireland to push the boundaries of what is possible with this traditional art form.
Style Swap, Retramp Gallery is proud to present a new edition by D!VE and Patrick Ireland 3000, commissioned exclusively for the exhibition “Recovering Catholics.” These prints draw inspiration from the artist’s personal collection of split LP’s where bands would share the cost of production and take one side of the record each, often covering a song from the other band. Combining printmaking and street art techniques, the artists have created two unique screen prints, each rooted in a commitment to analogue processes. One print began as a stencil, cut with a steady hand using a scalpel and sprayed onto wood by D!VE, then painstakingly hand-carved and printed by Ireland 3000. In contrast, the other print originates as a woodcut, cut using power-tools and hand-printed onto paper by Ireland 3000, and then meticulously transformed into a stencil by D!VE. The final stage for both artworks involves the artists screen-printing together, resulting in two editions personally signed, embossed, and numbered
