Liadin Cooke’s new work comes out of her enduring interest in language and materiality. Alongside this is her current inquiry into tools, not merely as articles of utility but as implements that serve the human need to alter, adapt, create and destroy. Tools are both contrived and used for extending the force of man onto something, and the resulting marks of action that they can leave behind imply a residue of possession.

For most people the result of an action is what is important. However, Cooke’s work is about constructing something that articulates the indication of a mark. In so doing, the importance of the action becomes disrupted, its intended outcome secondary, and its suggested implementation forces one into positing the question, ‘What made that mark and why?’.

 

 

 

Irish born artist Liadin Cooke has lived in the UK since 1993. Shortlisted for the Northern Art prize in 2012, recent solo exhibitions include Nostos at noshowspace London [2014]and Holden at Huddersfield Art Gallery and at the Artists house, Roche court, Wiltshire [2010]. Other shows include Overlay: Sculpture & Drawing, Yorkshire Sculpture Park [2006], Ballroom (ornament), Henry Moore Institute, Leeds [2003]. Her work has been shown extensively in Europe and the USA. Cooke’s work is in public and private collections including: Dublin Corporation, Camden Council and the Henry Moore Institute.