Townhall Arts Centre Gallery and Cavan Arts present:

Sometimes you just want to…
A solo exhibition by Ben Reilly

Townhall Arts Centre Gallery, Cavan

Official opening 7pm on Culture Night, Friday 18th September 2026
Exhibition runs until Thursday 29th October 2026

Open 10am to 4pm Tuesday to Friday
12pm to 4pm Saturday or by appointment

Townhall Arts Centre Gallery, Townhall Street, Cavan, H12 WV82.
Tel: 049 4380494 or email: townhallcavan@cavancoco.ie

A Sculpture and Print Exhibition

An armada of raft-like sculptures and swaying limbs glide through the Townhall Art Centre Gallery. Floating raft-like islands are surrounded by angular, tree-like sculptures that sway overhead and reach towards the ceiling. These are accompanied by etchings and individual cast-tin relics.

Drawing, research and observation are at the core of the working methods behind this exhibition. Just as the practical process involves cutting, shaping, refitting, chopping and changing, so too does the research that informs the sculptures, etchings and casts. Everything is constantly refitted, reworked and refined. Whether working in sculpture, film, drawing or print, the approach remains the same: sticking things together, cutting, erasing, scraping, refitting and reforming until all the elements come together in resolution.

The raft islands perhaps represent individual safe spaces, offering refuge from potential danger and destruction. Yet the flimsy construction of these rafts makes their safety tentative – ultimately, perhaps, an illusion.

The tin casts themselves are small but heavy, with the look and feel of talismans or good-luck charms. They are made using the process of cuttlefish casting, in which a design is directly carved into cuttlefish bone. This allows the natural pattern and limited size of the bone to become an important part of the design of each work. The casts have the appearance of something 3D-printed – an analogue version of 3D printing.

Although these cast elements form part of the overall pieces, for me they also represent the human presence. Not as directly as, for example, the cast wax feet, but through the presence of the individual: like a talisman, a relic, or a record of an individual’s past – a guiding presence within the work.

The rafts, limbs and small tin casts incorporate the reworking of found materials, such as driftwood and cuttlefish bone, creating works that have already lived a life before entering the exhibition. The marks and characteristics of these previous lives become part of their new identities, allowing them to carry traces of the past and reveal stories of their own.

Perhaps, ultimately, these works are about transformation: about taking what already exists, cutting it apart, reshaping it and giving it another life. In the process, new connections emerge, and the objects begin to tell stories of their own.

Ben’s Website