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  • J D Rooney, formed in water
    J D Rooney
    In the warmth of your arms I, 2023
    Keys, dominos, gilded tamarind, aluminium screen print on stained hardwood plywood. 
    119 x 78 cm

    J D Rooney

    formed in water
    Residency 02
    19 August - 26 August 2023
     
    formed in water is the title of J D Rooney’s site-specific exhibition representing the culmination of extensive research and development as the second recipient of the Cob Award.

    This exhibition reflects on past and present Atlantic crossings by the Caribbean diaspora. Through a collection of imagery, sound, and found objects, the installation is shown through the artist's eyes – standing at the ocean shore, looking out towards the country of his family’s origin. The materials collected point to areas of Black study that ruminate on sound's ability to transport, and where it overlaps with our relationship to space, objects, and memory. Perhaps the residues of sound and material, left over by these crossings, allow us to escape to other lands.
     
    J D Rooney is a multidisciplinary artist who lives and works in London. His practice explores the complexities regarding feelings of dislocation and reconnection from both his Guyanese and Irish heritage, and the hope for physical and cultural border crossings. His recent work has investigated the historic and ongoing extraction of resources from Guyana, and how these processes overlap with the Afrofuturism theory of Drexciya. This Drexciyan theory has introduced musical influences within his work, which considers how Black Atlantic cultures can give way to the creation of Black radical space. 

    J D Rooney studied Fine Art at Chelsea College of Arts. Recent exhibitions include Unknown Journey, ACAVA, London , UK (2022); Regal Oriental Hotel: AVA, Hong Kong, China (2019); Departed, LOA Gallery, London, UK (2019); Letting objects speak, Set Bermondsey, London, UK (2018). Recent Residencies include Into the Wild, Chisnehale Studios, London, UK (2023); Wysing Residency, Into the Wild, London, UK (2023); Studio 13 Residency, ACAVA, London, UK (2022).
     
     
     
    Selected press:
  • J D Rooney, In the warmth of your arms (Triptych), 2023 (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    J D Rooney In the warmth of your arms I, 2023 Keys, dominos, gilded tamarind, aluminium screen print on stained hardwood plywood. 119 x 78 cm (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    J D Rooney In the warmth of your arms I, 2023 Keys, dominos, gilded tamarind, aluminium screen print on stained hardwood plywood. 119 x 78 cm (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    J D Rooney, Water, 2023 (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    J D Rooney In the warmth of your arms III, 2023 Book, cassette tape, dominos, gilded tamarind, aluminium screen print on stained hardwood plywood. 119 x 78 cm (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    J D Rooney In the warmth of your arms III, 2023 Book, cassette tape, dominos, gilded tamarind, aluminium screen print on stained hardwood plywood. 119 x 78 cm (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    J D Rooney Space, 2023 Akai 4000 DB, 1/4 inch reel-to-reel tape, take up reel, speaker, sound, duration: Infinite loop. Dimensions Variable. Reel-to-reel: 40 x 52 cm Speaker: 119 x 27 cm (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    J D Rooney, In the warmth of your arms (Triptych), 2023