Niamh Barry

The connected forms comprising Vessel Scape II, like those in Barry’s commission for the Central Bank of Ireland, are inspired by the Broighter boat, an Iron Age gold artifact discovered in Irish farmland over a century ago and housed in the National Museum of Ireland. As such, the piece marks a shift from abstraction, and, to some extent, is an inversion of Barry’s use of space—with her Vessels series, Barry isn’t merely “drawing” with light, but composing with it.