Janet Mullarney divides her time between her studios in Ireland and in Italy. Following training with a furniture restorer in Florence she began to make wooden figures that engage dynamically with their surroundings. Compelled by inner necessity they cannot be contained by restrictive framing devices.
‘The Straight and Narrow’ refers to the path of righteousness on which the good Christian must focus in order to win salvation. Mullarney’s childhood fears of an unsympathetic, restrictive guardian angel are forcefully embodied in this piece. Instead of protection and guidance this guardian angel is a negative force, limiting the right to free choice, imposing righteousness through coercion. The work exists in real space but there is no attempt to deny the artifice which is evident in the mixture of highly finished surfaces and passages of raw chiselling.