‘Most of the art in Ireland was made by one type of person’: Richard Malone on taking his beautiful textile designs to the EU Council | Art

‘Jjust so you know,” says Richard Malone before we start talking, “whenever you hear a cry, it’s not me!” The Irish artist is speaking to me from an unusual studio location: a farm in Stradbally, County Laois. It may have a strange, media-hungry entrance, but it also has huge sheep herding rooms – the perfect place for Malone to build his latest five-metre sculptures.

“There are beautiful lambs everywhere and about 20 dogs running around,” he smiles. Exactly what I would choose to have around me.

Malone moved to the field after being commissioned to design the Council of the European Union’s sculptures. Justus Lipsius and Europe housing (Ireland takes over the EU presidency this month). Topic Memory is A reminder (Memory and Monument), the work will include his beautiful textile creations, which, with their beautiful drapes and folds, look like mythical creatures. The plan, he says, is to rewrite the story of what it means to be Irish.

“A lot of art inside Ireland especially they were made by one type of people,” he says, mentioning the number of ancient works by skilled women and artisans that have been erased or are not well known. Those men were not exposed to the work of textiles or sewing. So when they discover, say, Egyptian corpses and they are wrapped in these strange stripes with cloth, they just cut through them to get to the gold.

“What I’m asking is: why aren’t stitch samplers or other quilts collected? Why aren’t other artists on our courses?”

Along with the soft sculptures, Malone is designing the suits for the leadership of these buildings with the work of modern Irish artists, designers and craftsmen: sofas for delegates to sit on, rugs for walking, containers made from burnt wood. All of this is from Malone’s place. Born into a working-class family in Wexford, he was gifted with an artistic background by his decorator father. By the age of seven he could drive a car, while he spent his youth at various construction sites, painting. He said: “I really like the color. “Because I have been there for a long time actually to see the paint dry.”

Malone didn’t follow an apprenticeship – instead, she developed a love for her grandmother’s sewing, with an interest in how gender determined who worked in certain jobs. His work strives to break such barriers and elevate traditional, memorable art into masterpieces.

After studying sculpture in Carmarthen, Wales, Malone found himself a fashion student at Central Saint Martins in London. For a few years after graduating, she found herself a niche making pieces for “rich women”. Also, Björk inspired him. “My first favorite song was ‘It’s Oh So Quiet,’ because when you were a kid you could hate it,” says Malone. She has worked with the Icelandic singer several times since creating the stunning outfit she wears in the video. Atopos. “We’re at the same level, so everything has been normal – there’s no PR involved or brand marketing or anything negative.”

However, Malone has never felt at home in the world of fashion. He was disappointed by his friends and celebrities who took lucrative contracts to promote unethical products: “All you have to do when they email you is say no,” he complains. “I think everyone needs a little loyalty.”

An internship at a luxury brand opened his eyes to the industry. “The main judgment of your work (in fashion) depends on how much you sell, but of course, the way the world is, we don’t need 100,000 everything?” He laughs: “I always thought there was going to be some ruler who said, stop, you’ve done it now!”

The art exchange was difficult – people seemed unsure of which box to put Malone in. But in 2017 he created a jumpsuit for a MoMA show called Things: Are they Fashionable?which slowed down the change. In 2023, he received a call from the Royal Academy of Arts in London: they wanted him to create the basis for their summer exhibition – with only six weeks’ notice. “I was able to do it because my father taught me how to weld,” he says proudly of the hanging blue sculpture, titled. Poems of the Dark, from the Dark (A Dark Poem About Sorrow).

Before his death earlier this year, Malone’s father, James, supported many of his son’s demonstrations: laying down carpets to cover the floor or “thinking about useful things like rust”. He also helped design the vitrines for the exhibition in response to the work of modern architect Eileen Gray (from Wexford), which was shown on her famous E-1027 – house. was destroyed by the naked Le Corbusier at a time when many think they were jealous.

The EU capital will be another unusual place for Malone to answer. “There’s a lot of hype surrounding the safety and security of the building in terms of bomb threats and things that need to be removed in the event of a global emergency,” he says.

Some directors, he says, have given work “a lot of polished sculptures, while the installation is fragile and fragile, opposed to all glass and metal”.

It’s a bold move. But Malone likes to make us question what we take for granted, to think about how things work and how they can be changed. And if that means you have to hire a horse as a studio assistant, so be it.