Stephen Burke and Ronan Dillon, Tangled Steel

Handtufted, 100% Irish sheep’s wool
91x107cm/36x42inches

This artwork references warped city street crash barriers that often seem to defy their own materiality, the shapes they've been forced into are akin to more malleable materials, such as wool. This series was sparked as a visual acknowledgement of speed and depicts a visual narrative of joyriding within the city, a topic that Burke has been documenting for some time. This storytelling, paired with the aesthetic similarities between these barriers and the geometric patterns in Beni Ourain rugs, which Dillon had been referencing in his own practice, became apparent. Using Irish sheep's wool, the artists have created their own iconography based on spray-painted farmers sheep markings, city utility markings and crash barriers, balancing the speed of boy racers with go-slow processes of the countryside.