Judy Darragh
Forest of Dreams

A transparent foot flanked by a delicate toadstool invite visitors to take that first tentative step into a transcendent, supernatural forest where time frames collide and collapse and magic pings. Playing with scale and juxtaposition Darragh once again transforms everyday plastic objects into artworks that challenge humanity’s collective addiction to plastic, an addiction that has resulted in plastic entering the biosphere.

As well as wall works that feature assembled plastic funnels, embellished white plates and a family of photographs, sculptures present knitting needles piercing exercise foam mats. Plastic chairs form skeletons for birds of a feather. Discarded hubcaps become bejewelled, redemptive bling rings. Treelike columns sprout plinth branches that support smaller works. Hands made from recycled wood seem to grasp for invisible tools or reach up towards the light. Much happens on the journey into in Darragh’s forest, this hallucinatory walk on the wild side.