Vanessa O’Reilly

b. 1972, Mexico / UK

Through the amalgamation of the diverse forms and strategies within her work, Vanessa O’Reilly encourages an open-ended, non-didactic practice and interaction with her audience. She is interested in the flexibility of being able to look at a situation and then define herself within that context, rather than working on anything that has to be defined in terms of its place of origin, where it has been made, or where the idea arose. Decisions for the work have been made in video, photography, drawing and sculpture, and have predominantly been presented in site and context-specific situations and installations. O’Reilly is undoubtedly an optimist who demands a reaction to her individualistic affiliation to the world at large. She is also an observer whose work is often connected to making a sense of place … an intrinsic quality to the work is a nomadic sensibility, an understanding of the shifting nature of possibilities of display, as well as the paradigms that surround and create each and every opportunity.

— Lisa Panting from catalogue for Premises (Milch Gallery, London, 2002)

(Text: imagine limerick catalogue, 2004)