John Hansard Gallery is delighted to announce Stasis Field, a compelling new exhibition by acclaimed artist Kathy Prendergast.
This captivating show blends drawing, sculpture, and installation to explore themes of identity, geography, and the human body.
Known for her meditative and evocative works, Prendergast employs materials such as wool, fabric, chalk stone, flowers, and found objects to create art that resonates on both personal and universal levels. Stasis Field features a selection of new pieces made especially for John Hansard Gallery, offering audiences an intimate experience that intertwines memory, transformation, and the passage of time.
A recurring theme in Prendergast’s career is her engagement with maps—symbols of exploration, identity, and power. Since the 1990s, her practice has reimagined maps as emotional and personal artefacts. Included in Stasis Field are hand-coloured works which invite viewers to reflect on human connections to land, borders, and the histories they carry. Inspired by her Irish upbringing during debates about European Union membership, Prendergast’s fascination with territories and boundaries was shaped by Ireland’s evolving identity and the experiences of diaspora communities.
The exhibition’s centrepiece is a collection of transformed volcanic maps that merge the physical and emotional. Prendergast’s hand-drawn contours and vibrant red accents imbue these works with a tactile, almost pulsating energy. The delicate addition of stones and flowers further connects the maps to the earth, presenting a poetic exploration of human impact on landscapes. These maps act as meditations on how we define space and our relation to the body.
Prendergast’s use of “non-precious” materials, such as chalk stone and wool, emphasises their connection to the earth, while her signature red threads tie the works together, symbolising energy, identity, and transformation. The exhibition challenges viewers to consider their own sense of self, the journeys they’ve undertaken, and the boundaries—both visible and invisible—that shape their lives.
Stasis Field is a deeply reflective and timely exhibition, inviting audiences to contemplate their relationship with the land, their histories, and their place in an ever-changing world.
Kathy Prendergast is represented by Kerlin Gallery.
Read the full Press Release here.
About the artist
London based Irish artist Kathy Prendergast studied at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, and the Royal College of Art, London. Her ongoing practice of drawing, installation and sculptural works consider issues of sexuality, identity, mapping and power, memory and loss. Prendergast has exhibited widely, including Art Now, Tate 1997, Yokohama Triennale, 2017, Venice Biennale representing Ireland in 1995, and Irish Museum of Modern Art/IMMA in 2000. Her work is represented in many public and private collections worldwide, including Arts Council England and Arts Council Ireland.