My practice is concerned with mark making and explorations of cognitive function and anxiety. These explorations employ painting, sculpture and drawing, and range from two-dimensional, wall mounted pieces to indoor and outdoor installations.
Combining these mark making techniques with the physical presence of sculpture is at the center of my current series, which is also informed by my experience with heightened personal anxiety. Working with primary documentation and drawing on theoretical frameworks, the series centers on the realisation that becoming hyper-aware of life around you can counter-balance the dislocation and disembodiment of an anxiety disorder. The everyday effort entailed by being present in the world, namely the deliberate observation of life, struck me as worthy of exploration. It also struck me that mark making can similarly be described as an act of reflection that grounds one in the present moment, and I wanted to more fully explore the overlap within my practice. My process, for instance, mirrors this close-observation by focusing on meticulous detail and blending the objects’ physical forms through the mediums of gouache, oil paint, oil stick, coffee and colouring pencil.
I have also created a system to document periods of time I later work from. This entails documenting moments inside specific parameters (e.g. time, location) and compiling each period into ‘rounds’. During these ‘rounds’, photography, sketching and audio recording are used to document my surroundings, and are later compiled through drawing to make up the visual material from which I extract the final pieces.
The compilation element of the project has become a material metaphor for personal narrative and memory: the memories we unwillingly manipulate and inaccurately document and that make up our own personal narrative. These disparate elements engage the viewer by asking them to consider the relationship between them, while the redrawing and embellishment strips the ‘round’ of any historical accuracy, and ultimately allows it form a new narrative.
Curriculum Vitae:
2016 Sky Academy Arts Scholarship Winner
Education:
NCAD Fine Art B.A. Hons - 2011
NCAD Fine Art Media M.A. - 2013
Exhibitions:
First Fortnight DE:TOX, Film base – January 2012
INTRIM, IMOCA May – January 2012
Cumulative Frustrations, Grosvenor Studios February 2013
Collaborations, 13 Smock Alley – February 2013
Excess Baggage, Tallinn, Estonia – March 2013
MA Fine Art, Graduate exhibition, NCAD – June 2013
Curb your Carrie Bradshawism, The MART – September 2013
Art, Line and Sinker, The MART – November 2013
Grosvenor Studios exhibition, The MART – December 2013
Bernard Shaw invitational, Dublin – February 2014
I pity the fool, The MART – April 2014
Three Lads One Page, Beatyard festival – April 2014
Landmarked, The MART – August 2014
Peachy, Temple Bar Gallery and studios – May 2015
Instinct Hive, Gallery, Los Angles – July 2015
Instinct part two, SMAS, Los Angles – July 2015
Quote/Unquote, The MART, – August 2015
Waterford Walls, Waterford City – August 2015
Human Appeal Syrian aid, – December 2015 ‘
Le Chéile I Ngruaig’ Woman of the 1916 rising, Dublin - March 2016
‘Activating Pangea’ DAC Gallery - Los Angles - April 16.
Peachy, ‘FEAR’, Temple Bar Gallery and studios – August 2016
Waterford Walls, Waterford City – August 2016
The Other Art Fair, Victoria House, Southampton Row, London - April 2017