Desiccated hydrogel and mica flakes, 120 x 55 x 55cm.
This piece references the Mica Housing scandal and how dreams that are built to last can be easily eroded. As has been documented, mica was used as a bulking agent in concrete and its unintended disintegration has led to tragic and disastrous effect. In Dream House, the mica produces a shimmering unreal surface and entry is impossible. The house is made from a mixture of edible gels which are adapted for use in paper conservation, here they have been loaded with mica and desiccated to create a rigid structure. However, if exposed to the elements it will invariable turn to a pile of mush, a bit like the magic pumpkin in Cinderella.
The use of hydrogel + mica as a material is a familiar combination in the cosmetic industry to promote youthful hydration and a healthy shimmer in beauty products. Naturally, it is both temporary and surface deep and designed to disintegrate or require ongoing maintenance. In Model Homes, the house has been replaced by body forms to emphasise fragility, a fragility associated with the temporality of beauty ideals and the effects of time on the body’s shell.
Inspired by the recent referendum on Article 41.2 of the Constitution which proposed to replace specific references to women with gender neutral wording, ‘In Your Place’ highlights the ongoing reality of women’s position as the principal caregivers and unpaid workers in the home. The short film presents a claustrophobic situation and suffocating figure without a means to communicate.
Desiccated hydrogel and mica flakes, 110 x 65 x 40cm.
This piece references the feats of endurance or the antidotes to sorcery found in tales such as the Wild Swans and the Children of Lir where the protagonist is tasked with an arduous test of faith or physical exercise designed to counteract the evil spell of the usually wicked stepmother (who is trying herself to eek out an existence in a patriarchal environment). In this instance it is the societal expectation of combining the mother/provider/career professional/carer and idealised woman that is the impossible task and ask. Like a shed skin, the incomplete dress has been discarded, its occupant hopefully liberated…
Middens are accumulations of discarded material, historical rubbish heaps. Those situated along coastlines typically contain shells, bones and other such remnants of survival. They are found in Ireland and across the world and are read as sites of temporary occupation, holding traces of movement, diets, temporary settlements and lives shaped by nomadic patterns; evidence of the practice of economic migration that persisted well into modern history. While research has largely focused on the Mesolithic period (8000 – 4000BC), the Irish coastline holds midden sites spanning from pre-farming societies to early Christian times. There are 77 recorded midden sites in Mayo, eighteen of which are sheltered in Clew Bay.
In response, A Tenuous Line, uses the form of a folding screen to represent this cradling landscape. A screen functions as a portable threshold in terms of physical protection or when employed as a verb, screening can expose and be used to selectively exclude. From one side it offers expansion; from the other, containment. A thin structure that decides what passes and what does not. The screen employs a motif associated with commercial shop grilles; a boundary that sits uneasily between categories: it is not a net for gathering, a mesh for protection, nor bars for incarceration. Its scalloped pattern evokes shells or scales, natural forms of protection grown by necessity, yet its familiar commercial use ultimately signals restriction. Shells are associated with protection but they also restrain, this contradiction, how the structures that make us feel safe can also trap us, is central to my practice.
The shells incorporated into the work were once valuable commodities, sources of nourishment and possibly of ritual or decorative significance. By placing them behind the scalloped grille, I reframe them as objects of value, drawing attention to the shifting systems through which worth is assigned and preserved. The grille exists to safeguard assets; protection hardens into denial, it is an economic barrier. This tenuous line is not a line drawn on a map. It is a line drawn around resources, around bodies, around access. Viewers are invited to engage on both a personal and universal level, encountering their own vulnerabilities and memories within the structure, questioning what it means to seek protection while remaining exposed.
Accelerated Ageing is a method used to determine the future ageing characteristics of a mechanism or material. In fine art conservation, it is employed to gain a better understanding of the implications of a treatment with regard to the longevity and stability of a work of art. It is also the means whereby new materials and technologies can be tested to assess their suitability and predicted long term applications. The validity of accelerated ageing tests relies on a controlled environment and standardised conditions in order to assess the impact of external factors.
Accelerated Ageing, (2018) Silver mirroring on x-ray film details, 24 x 30cm (overall dms; 182cm x 88cm)
I have adopted this process of accelerated ageing to induce deterioration rapidly in photographic negatives by converting the silver nitrate particles suspended in the gelatine emulsion to silver sulphide, also known as silver mirroring. This silver mirroring is the result of the diffusion of silver ions in the emulsion from the inner layer to the oxidised outer layer where they react with external sulphur containing compounds such as hydrogen sulphide.
This concept of accelerated ageing is mirrored in my sense of time. As I age, time appears to speed up and in the blink of an eye, 18 years have passed. Current discourse on societal pressure would suggest that our children are growing up in a ‘polluted’ atmosphere full of predators, where their every move is recorded, controlled, policed and anticipated. In this perceived state, the exposure to and effect of external influences (pollutants) raises the age old issue of nature versus nurture and whether our behaviour is determined by our environment and to what extent.
Using wax as a resist, I have made drawings of my daughters on recycled x-ray negatives from birth to young adult, and selectively exposed the drawings to pollutant gasses in a temperature controlled humidity chamber.
The formation of silver sulphide on the photographic surface produces a beautiful multi-coloured shine, reflecting that despite our distorted fears of current society, it does not mean that the outcome will be negative, sometimes as in accelerated ageing tests, positives can result and something quite precious is created.
2019 Mixed media prints and constructions suspended in steel frame 205 x 126 x 100cm
Presenting play as a serious endeavour in which reasoning and behavioural language is learnt, dramas unfold and extreme emotions can be expressed, the two figures in this piece represent a personal statement on self understanding, self-display and the psychological cycle of life in which ‘hang ups’ may change in character and focus but not necessarily in their presence or absence.
Using a steel frame reminiscent of a swing, antique distorted glass panels are suspended to present a warped view of the inner, outer and ‘hoped-for’ identities. Based on the premise that the body holds all of its experiences within its fabric, on some occasions slippage occurs and what was once hidden is revealed. Age, transparency, protection and connection are present in the multiple layers.
The heads are multifaceted composites of both myself and my daughters in youth and maturity. The viewer is confronted with my features superimposed over their own mirrored image when they look into the boxes. Self-recognition is distorted by the unfamiliarity of the combined countenances.
Installation shot: Graphic Studio Gallery, Dublin. included in Expanded, curated by Andrew Folan, Peter Brennan and Mateja Smic. 5 February – 12 March 2022
Installation shot and details RUA RED Come Back to Me MFA interim show.
