Street artist James Earley is making his mark in new materials; we visit the workshop where he’s putting a contemporary twist on age-old stained glass.
It’s a grey day in Crumlin when we arrive to see art in action at Connon Studios. Upstairs in an unassuming industrial building, we enter a light-filled space lined with long, wide workbenches, surrounded by bright panes and half-finished fanlights. Hunched over two complex and colourful lead and glass arrangements are Jimmy and Ray, who have two weeks to turn James Earley’s drawings into two fully-formed stained-glass pieces. From cut lines being created, glass cutting, leading measuring and clipping, soldering, cementing and fitting of the pieces, it’s a laborious process. They need three weeks really.
Exploring stained glass was an itch James has had for years. His family owned and operated Earley and Company on Dublin's Camden Street for over 100 years, and created ecclesiastical art of a very high standard. So, no pressure then. “I hold it in such high regard. When I try to do something new, I like to give it a lot of time and thought.”
Grappling with religion and the association of stained glass with it, James took time to settle on an approach. “I’m not a religious person myself and I have strong views about religion. I respect people’s beliefs, as long as they don’t push them on others, and don’t use religion as a vehicle to promote political ideals or commit heinous crimes to humanity. I was really trying to figure out how I could do stained glass artwork that wouldn’t be associated with religion.”
Working with Connon Studios was a steep learning curve. “I think the best way to learn is to aim high,” says James. “I wasn’t naïve about the amount of work that had to be done to get to that level. I knew it was going to be a tough journey.” James worked closely with Jimmy and Ray, expert leaders and cutters at Evan Connon’s workshop, who himself had originally trained under James’s uncle Willie Earley. “Evan was pretty hands off,” James explains. “But at the start, he looked at the plans and my cut lines, and gave advice on what would work and what wouldn’t, which was great.”
To choose his glass, James headed to Liverpool. “The selection of glass is quite poor in Ireland,” he says. “You end up having mainly primary tones or incredibly dark. Also the prices are pretty extortionate over here too.” Throughout, 5mm and 7mm leading is used. “With hindsight, we could’ve gone thicker in some parts, but I think the composition is nicely balanced.”
Taking a leap from pure mural-based artwork was no easy hop, and these stained-glass pieces go on to become part of James’s Things Fall Apart exhibition in Dollard House on Dublin’s quays, a mixed media show comprising of silk scarves, laser cut Perspex, large paintings on metal, silkscreen prints, a giclée print with a silkscreen layer of gold, and the centrepieces: two large stained-glass windows. A few weeks after our workshop visit, we meet in the exhibition space.
Flanked by heavy black curtains at the end are the two completed stained-glass pieces glowing in the dark. Their impact is undeniable. We walk up and down the long exhibition room where Perspex pieces line up back-to-back along the centre. James enthuses about the medium, “It is a modern material that is evocative of many of the qualities found in glass. You can apply laser cutting to it, you can etch into it, it’s a different finish, it’s less crafty. Their fields of colour are like stained glass, but without the leading.”
Each piece in the show is a collaboration, whether that’s with a fabricator on laser cutting or an art assistant blocking in colour on painted pieces. “It’s a must when working on a mix of materials,” says James. “A thorough understanding of the processes and materials is also essential. Once you understand the medium, collaborating with an experienced craftsperson is what will bring it to life.”
The exhibition’s title Things Fall Apart comes from the Yeats poem The Second Coming, which was written in the uncertain time after the First World War and the Easter Rising. “It was a particularly turbulent time in Ireland, and globally, and I thought there were certain parallels between that and what we’re experiencing now, between Brexit, Trump and North Korea.”
“I’m not aiming to be negative, but I’m trying to realistic about things. Closer to home again, my twin brother Mark lost his wife last year and that’s why my portrait of him looks down the room into the exhibition. The exhibition is dedicated to Liane.” James says the exhibition is not intended to be downbeat. “It’s also about how people react to difficult situations in their lives and, ultimately, it’s about rebuilding one’s self. Humans are very resilient and we can overcome adversity.” Things do break apart and structure is always in a state of flux, but James Earley’s bold use of colour and chance carry an infallible optimism.
PHOTOGRAPHY Al Higgins
PUBLISHED Image Interiors & Living Jul/Aug 2018