Catalogue Essay

Unexpected collisions occur in the haptic amalgamations of Ro Noonan. Industrial off-cuts and byproducts fuse and twist; iron, steel, plaster, wood, concrete and hosepipe come together in the construction of strange new forms. Collected from building sites and city skips, the elements within each work are carefully chosen with bowerbird precision for their unique qualities. Each fragment is scrutinised and catalogued – for surface, shape, weight and colour - before being subjected to a series of transformative processes.

Underpinning these actions, and central to Noonan’s practice, is the verb to fit. His jigsaw-puzzle logic seeks, through a series of trials, to bring together disparate elements, either physically – as is the case with the hosepipe that sheathes the steel rebar of Weigh Better – or aesthetically – as is the case with his near-obsessive collection of pastel-hued refuse. In bringing tgether these rejected elements, Noonan tests their ability to co-exist. Whilst each individual element maintains its own aesthetic intrigue, it is the point of connection rendered between each material that is the most beautiful aspect of Noonan’s work. Tape, putty, paint, rope and glue are all gracefully deployed to erase the singularity of each material, confusing the beginning and ending of each and leaving us with new, often geological-seeming sculptural conglomerates.

Whilst these outwardly haphazard structures appear quick and provisional they are actually gradual works, built up in sedimentary layers over long periods in the studio. In an ever-quickening world, where waste is discarded in increasing volumes, the slowness of these works, with their deliberate centering of gesture and connection, return significance to these discards and invite the viewer to reassesses our systems of value. By focusing on the minutiae, whether it be the embodied histories of each material, their juxtaposition or the delicately rendered surfaces, these works reward those willing to sit with them, to get close and look. So slow down for a moment and get lost in Noonan’s industrial-organic works, where castoffs collate and become monuments that articulate the slippage between the everyday and art. 

By Jake Preval