Rose Nolan
A Sin­gu­lar Impulse

Rose Nolan’s prac­tice inves­ti­gates the for­mal and lin­guis­tic qual­i­ties of words and their rela­tion­ship to archi­tec­tur­al space. ​‘A Sin­gu­lar Impulse’ is a suite of new text works built from the sim­ple rep­e­ti­tion of a sin­gle geo­met­ric form and ges­ture. Rem­i­nis­cent of cross-stitch embroi­dery sam­plers or elec­tron­ic tick­er-tape sig­nage cap­tured mid-stream, they high­light the space of sus­tained focus and labour and the mea­sured progress of time.

In a play­ful self-reflex­ive ges­ture the cen­tral work to the exhi­bi­tion Big Words (Not Mine) – Rep­e­ti­tion com­pul­sion…(2018), not only rumi­nates on the dri­ve to repeat a sin­gu­lar impulse, but is formed by the very action it speaks of using mate­ri­als that accord­ing to their pro­mo are ​‘great for often repeat­ed tasks’. Its embed­ded ener­gy is held tight­ly with­in its crisp white frame. This propo­si­tion informs the con­cep­tu­al, for­mal and mate­r­i­al basis for a set of respons­es across the space of the gallery, sug­gest­ing that Nolan is explor­ing mul­ti­ple ways to work with­in the con­di­tions she has set for herself.

Mov­ing through ​‘A Sin­gu­lar Impulse’ there is aware­ness of the way in which the works are placed to demar­cate space, to be in con­ver­sa­tion with each oth­er and expand beyond their frames. Con­sis­tent with Nolan’s instal­la­tion based prac­tice – stand­ing still is not an option. The cen­tral work shares a con­tin­u­ous white frame, but end points and joins inter­rupt the line of vision, mak­ing it impos­si­ble to see the entire­ty of the almost 14-metre work from one posi­tion. To expe­ri­ence each work, it is nec­es­sary to move in, to shift the angle of sight and to become con­scious of the role of the body in the process of look­ing. Read­ing is as always from left to right but one must look back and forth, up and down, re-read­ing works already read, find­ing moments of rep­e­ti­tion or cor­re­spon­dence between indi­vid­ual works that entail a expan­sive mode of reception.