A Record of Tenderness

The Dock proudly presents a solo exhibition of new works by Richard Malone. A Record of Tenderness is a powerful exploration of labour and class through sculpture, performance and film. The artist combines disparate gendered practices to build propositional frameworks and to dismantle constructed identities. In A Record of Tenderness, the queer imagination takes centre stage.

Meticulously crafted, Malone’s textile assemblages celebrate Irish stitching and weaving and their purpose in holding something together. As feminised and anonymous forms of labour, stitch and weave techniques have long been overlooked as important artifacts of Irish material culture. Rather than fetishising heritage fabrics like linen or wool, Malone employs everyday materials such as jersey and canvas.

These sculptural installations, supported by welded steel, also nod to the knowledge of tradesmanship. Throughout the exhibition, builder’s chalk, masonry paint and other tools highlight the unseen labour that goes into the making. These subtle interventions speak to the language of class and the skills that the artist has learned from their family. Performative gestures like cutting in and painting the gallery walls with Malone’s father are made visible.

Created on or in relation to the human form, Malone’s sculptures also suggest an internal dialogue, movement and theatre – some figures appear alive or captured in suspended emotion. In a series of new films, the artist brings us further behind the scenes to foreground the process of making through recorded rehearsals. Using choreographed motion and collective improvisation, the professional dancers play with idealised forms and gestures from classical and colonial art history.

The boundaries of the film set begin to dissolve as the performers move through the scenography. Some of the works in the gallery act as residual traces relating to the on-screen personas, propped up by armatures and rigging; others simulate awnings, influenced by notions of affluence, alluding to the architectural tropes of contemporary rural Ireland, with humour and tension.