Exhibition to explore the world of boat building

AN exhibition by a BAFTA nominee which explores the craft of boat building takes place at Bantry House next month. 

Anne Tilby’s exhibition opens on July 13th and runs until July 29th – and looks at the unique culture and craft of boatbuilding and the resilience, defiance and survival of the craft.

The artist has had an interesting career: it involved production design for the comedy series Father Ted, Spitting Image and Sticky Moments starring Julian Clary. 

Anne has also designed for operas at Covent Garden Royal Opera House and English National Opera and, in 1998, received a BAFTA nomination for Alice Through The Looking Glass. 

For more than 40 years, her design work for TV and stage has been intermittent with fine art exhibitions and collaborations, resulting in a cross-fertilisation of mixed media work. 

Anne is not afraid to use humour in her artwork to confront our values. 

Twin Cheeks, for example, was a book consisting of 40 painted backsides; Fag presented a satirical collection of cigarette butts; and 2012’s Tortured Soles, which was an exhibition of 35 unwearable shoes – a nod to ladies’ fashion.

Following her project Trash Factory, devised in 2000, to address the deluge of plastic pollution, Anne began running creative workshops for all ages. 

It turns up again in her upcoming exhibition – In The Boatyard: An Clos mBad – in that she uses junk plastic and recycled objects, including a 100-year-old sail that has had a dramatic and romantic life of its own.

It was on a boat which fished as far as Newfoundland – the Angele Aline,  a vessel that rescued 350 men at Dunkirk.

Anne found the sail on the Essex coast where she built her first sailing dingy with her father over 50 years ago.

Admission to the exhibition is €5.