Vivienne Roche | ‘Off Square’ | 1981 | Watercolour on paper | 79 x 94cm

Over the past few months has, for many of us, seen the boundaries between home and work become intangible. Artists have always documented what is immediate to them, the places they live and work as well as those of others. In this showcase we are looking back through the Arts Council collection and sharing works made over the past 50 years that explore where we live and where we work.

Here, Vivienne Roche, whose work is showcased under the ‘Where we live, where we work’ theme, tells us more about the featured artwork and what it means to have her artwork as part of the Arts Council collection. Explore this and more from the Arts Council collection at https://www.instagram.com/artscouncilireland/

As a student on a J1 visa in the early 1970's I became very interested in architecture. During the year I studied art at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (1974/75), I also started painting in watercolour.

In 1981, the year I made Off Square, I received a travel grant from the Arts Council to see the buildings and studio practices of architects such as Kevin Roche (no relation) and I.M.Pei in the United States. I explored their buildings through photography and watercolour and had the priviliege of meeting architects who were at the height of their careers in the USA. This direct engagement with architecture and with architects had a profound influence on the sculpture I made afterwards in my studio in Co. Cork.

The travel grant was the first support I received from the Arts Council and the purchase of Off Square was the second. That support gave me the confidence and ambition to find my own path, however ‘off square’ that might be, and to remain open to such influences, some local, some national, and some international.

I haven't seen Off Square since 1981 but the fact that it is in the Arts Council's collection means that I can enjoy seeing it sometime, as you too may do.

—Vivenne Roche

Since 1962, the Arts Council has been buying art from working artists. The Collection that evolved tells the story of modern and contemporary Irish visual art in a unique and fascinating way. Today the Collection continues to grow and its more than 1,100 paintings, sculptures and other works are on display in public spaces all over Ireland for people to experience and enjoy first hand. You can find out more at: www.artscouncil.emuseum.com