Tomas Penc - The Paradise of the Heart

Then, looking around me by means of this dim, scant light, I see on the walls certain small pictures of, as it seemed, sometime pretty work; but the colours had faded, and some portions of the pictures had been hewn off, or broken off…Then in the middle of the chamber I see divers broken and damaged ladders, and pincers and ropes, that had been damaged and scattered about; item, large wings with plucked plumes; lastly clock-works with broken or bent cylinders, dents, and little columns; and all this was scattered about at random, here and there…And I wondered what was the purpose of these implements, how and by whom they had been injured, and how they could be repaired…For that of which I had here seen but the beginning pleased me well, both because my little chamber had not the evil smell of the other places, through which I had passed in the world, and also because I found not here rustle and rush, noise and crash, unrest and reeling to and fro, tussling and violence (things of which the world is full). Here everything was quiet.

1 Comenius, Johann Amos, The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart, New York, E. P. Dutton & Company, 1901, p. 278-279.

Inspired by an allegorical literary work Labyrinth of the World and Paradise of the Heart by the 17th century scholar John Amos Comenius, this collaborative exhibition by Tomas Penc and Peter Nash examines the concept of home as a safe place for personal development and self-expression. In the exhibition, the artists responded visually to this allegorical work and brought its subject matter into the contemporary context of Cork city.

Zukunftsmusik – mild steel, concrete, 3D prints, found objects, 2017-2018; Barking Dog Seldom Bites – mild steel, wood, motion triggered sound & projection, electronic parts, 2017-2018; Hidden Potential – mild-steel, sound, 3D animation loop, 3D prints, electronic parts, 2017-2018 (photo credits: venividiphoto.net)