An island, a boat, a ladder, some cloud...

From Silver to Clear oil on canvas, 39 x 44 cm — **From Silver to Clear** oil on canvas, 39 x 44 cm

From Silver to Clear X oil on canvas, 39 x 44 cm — **From Silver to Clear X** oil on canvas, 39 x 44 cm

Heading into Cloud I oil on canvas, 54 x 63 cm — **Heading into Cloud I** oil on canvas, 54 x 63 cm

From Silver to Clear V oil on canvas, 39 x 44 cm — **From Silver to Clear V** oil on canvas, 39 x 44 cm

Heading into Cloud II oil on canvas, 54 x 63 cm — **Heading into Cloud II** oil on canvas, 54 x 63 cm

Shadow oil on canvas, 54 x 63 cm — **Shadow** oil on canvas, 54 x 63 cm

From Silver to Clear IX oil on canvas, 39 x 44 cm — **From Silver to Clear IX** oil on canvas, 39 x 44 cm

From Silver to Clear VIII oil on canvas, 39 x 44 cm — **From Silver to Clear VIII** oil on canvas, 39 x 44 cm

From Silver to Clear XI oil on canvas, 39 x 44 cm — **From Silver to Clear XI** oil on canvas, 39 x 44 cm

From Silver to Clear XII oil on canvas, 39 x 44 cm — **From Silver to Clear XII** oil on canvas, 39 x 44 cm

Shadow and Cloud ll oil on canvas, 100 x 150 cm — **Shadow and Cloud ll** oil on canvas, 100 x 150 cm

Shadow and Cloud oil on canvas, 100 x 150 cm — **Shadow and Cloud** oil on canvas, 100 x 150 cm

An island, a boat, a ladder, some cloud...

Bernadette Burns

’In Burns’s paintings, the island is iconic and constant but never quite the same. The intricacy of its promise shifts from one moment to the next. The island is just out of reach and full of potential; the lure of all that might have been and might yet be, if a way can be found. But the view in these paintings is also from island to island, and it attends to the water in-between. Perhaps, after all, this imperfect shore is a landing place, solid ground, and this steady gaze reflective rather than simply full of longing.

‘The ladder and the cloud serve as a lure, enticing us out of ourselves,to come and explore. A ladder invites you to climb. In the paintings they hover indefinitely, in the sculpture the ladder is quirky and whimsical. So the call to climb is both seductive and challenging. The ladder on offer is not quite a definite structure and it is not immediately clear where it is going. And the cloud is a beckoning cloud, white and airy. It is a cloud that only just obscures vision and you know that there is something, lightness beyond it, if you can just push through.

‘The boat is a crisp promise, coming toward us through the mist, that meaning might finally be achieved. It is coming. An Island, a boat, a ladder, some cloud. The work is about imagining, a place that might be, and it is about memory and the ambivalence of memory, its realities also tantalisingly out of reach. The work explores the disjunctures in how events are remembered and hold meaning for people but its approach is gentle, in a vein of noticing, empathy and curiosity.

‘That boat. Always coming. Never here.’

Prof. Siún Hanrahan

Bernadette Burns lives and works on Sherkin Island. Primarily a painter, she also works with drawing, photography, video and construction. Her work focuses on memory, transience and change, on how there are many strands and versions of a story, rather than a clear and factual truth. Her paintings refer to places that have personal meaning or memories. The healing, spiritual and transforming qualities of water are of importance.