Veronica Ryan OBE

The pillow of Ryan’s Relics in the Pillow of Dreams supports a set of bronze, pod-like 'relics’. They sit in its indentations, seemingly about to sprout from them. Both pillows and pods, as well as nuts, fruits and seeds, reappear throughout Ryan’s sculptures. These at times reference fruit from the Caribbean island of Montserrat, where Ryan spent her childhood before moving to the UK. Here, the soft-seeming pillow is placed close to the earth, acting as a link through which time-past (through the bronze ‘relics’) and time-future (through the possibility of dreams) meet.