Anne Teahan

The paper constructions of Anne Teahan hover between drawing, sculpture and installation. They begin as observational drawings produced on handmade or cartridge paper, which she then tears and fragments before recombining the pieces across the surface of a prosaic domestic item, such as a shoe, a pot, a bottle or a container. These functional objects have been worn and moulded by handling and use, and thus she is recording and recapturing their tactile relationship with individuals. Her delicate, semi-opaque structures cast silhouettes that suggest yet more drawings. This connects both to her fascination with the shadows within film noir and also to the workings of museums and their preservation of objects (the displays of crumbling personal objects in the Imperial War Museum have been a key inspiration). There is a struggle here between admitting the inevitability of decay and showing how art can allay destruction by fixing an image in time, as the Dutch flower paintings of the 17th century so self-consciously demonstrated. This is work about fragility - a twin fragility of objects and humans - in which both fall prey to the ravages of time and the unexpected violence often meted out by history. (Pryle Behrman Florence Trust Catalogue, July 2006)