Past Exhibition
Michael Boran
The Palace of Bubbles
4 February - 27 February 1999
The Palace of Bubbles
Michael Boran’s extraordinary new work is all about bubbles. On entering the main chamber of his Palace of Bubbles protean associations bubble up: cell biology, space probes, Moorish architecture, the world economy, 70s retro, worker bees, the boy in the bubble, afterimages, innocence, moments of epiphany, memory, the passing of times…
In the practice of meditation, thoughts are regarded as a flow of bubbles, rising into consciousness. And there is certainly a meditative quality to the Palace, the images, being free or fixed coordinates mean that we could be looking from either end of a telescope – at a single electron, or the expanding cosmos. Or through a time bubble, we could be witnessing the creation of Life itself as it emerged with a plop from the primal soup, billions of years ago.
At times awesomely beautiful, at others even slightly menacing, Boran’s bubbles set us off on a series of journeys into the architecture of imagery. We could start with the bubble image made from melted photographic film. Here, the film itself, usually eclipsed by the imprint of ‘content’, is revealed as a veil, a lattice of bubbles. We embark on a microscopic voyage into the film, into the beautiful madness of pure pattern and design that underpins all representation. You get the sense that those patterns, also presented in a series of ‘blueprints’ are the abstracted designs upon which Nature regenerates itself.
Throughout the work there is a playful insistence on exploring the blindspots of western perspective representation. In the outdoor projection piece, the fixity of the ‘eye’ in the perspective model is taken to extremes – with humorous consequences. Or, in pop mode, Bubble Projectile throws us into the photon chaos inside a giant eye> Or again, more lyrically, in the Exploded Projector installation we can dwell in the upside-down memory world of the glass globe/lens; we can see the inside of a light bulb, another bubble of sorts.
In their promiscuous masquerade, bubbles confound the positive certainties of the perspective system, decoupling the conjoined orders of perception and representation. Poised at the close of the photographic century, Michael Boran’s new york opens up a space between the burden of representation and the dizzying freedom of pure pattern.
Washing up will never be the same.
Tanya Kiang, Dublin 1999
‘The Palace of Bubbles we are told, combines ‘serious metaphysical concerns about time and temporality with a truly delightful exuberance’.’
Video
Michael Boran is an acclaimed Irish photographer whose work explores constructed and found worlds through a lens that bridges art, science, and philosophy. His work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions and commissions at Photo Museum Ireland (formerly The Gallery of Photography), since 1989. Boran’s work has also been featured in commissioned exhibitions: Without Walls and The Bank, both awarded through national competition.
Boran’s early inclusion in True Stories and Photofictions at the Gallery’s original Wellington Quay space introduced his work to wider audiences, leading to his distinction as the only Irish photographer featured in Mary Warner Marian’s The History of Photography.
His landmark solo exhibition The Palace of Bubbles (1998) received critical acclaim, with RTÉ’s Arts Show panel—Anne Enright, Medbh Ruane, and Graham Lenehan—praising it as “combining serious metaphysical questions with sheer pleasure… everyone liked that one, that’s a rarity.” The exhibition’s influence extended beyond the art world: photographs from The Palace of Bubbles were published in Weaire and Hutzler’s The Physics of Foams, later cited as a design inspiration for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Aquatics Centre (reference). Images were also included in Peter Sloterdijk’s The Spheres Trilogy, (German: Sphären-Trilogie) marking Boran’s work as a bridge between artistic, scientific, and philosophical inquiry.
In addition to his solo and group exhibitions at Photo Museum Ireland, Boran was commissioned by the Central Bank of Ireland to produce a photographic project as part of the Bank’s Percent for Art scheme, a significant public commission that further established his reputation for responding to urban and institutional spaces with a uniquely observational approach.
Boran’s practice continues to evolve through national and international exhibitions, including regular shows at Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin. His work is held in public and private collections, and he has been awarded residencies including a long-term studio at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, where he continues to develop projects that engage with the intersections of landscape, place, and human intervention.
A dedicated photographic practitioner working with both analogue and digital methods, Boran’s work maintains a sensitivity to materials and processes, as exemplified in his use of the Museum’s colour darkroom for The Palace of Bubbles.
Further details of his work and exhibitions can be found at Kevin Kavanagh Gallery and his blog michaelboran.blogspot.com.