Surreal Estate

Surreal Estate installation
Graphic Studio Gallery: May 2013
Thermal transfer screen print on constructed aluminium boxes containing interiors with etchings/screen prints/monoprints.
11 Digital Archival pigment prints
3 minute animated film.

Surreal Estate
Surreal Estate has grown out of my interest in shadows, reflections and windows. Working in a beautiful old studio surrounded by a variety of old and disused windows, obsolete vitrines and historic picture glass, I was particularly drawn to how the inherent distortions formed in glass during manufacture and the subsequent creep of ageing can influence how and what we see. Such idiosyncratic textures together with additional visual patterns of rain, dust and oil provide a unique impression; a distorted reality. This in turn led me to look closer at patterned and decorative glass, nets, curtains and blinds, all of which control or alter what we allow of our private life to be seen and how we view our surroundings. The installation comprises three elements Surrealight, 35 print and sculptural constructions, Surrealshadow, a set of digital prints and Shadowlight, a 3min animated film.

Surrealight represents an uninhabited urban area akin to the many historic, deserted Irish villages and current ghost estates albeit with an independent imaginary life of its own; one that we are not invited to share. Nevertheless, we are pulled in by our curiosity and by the desire to make sense of what we can see. A dirty window obscured by torn curtains suggests neglect or eccentricity but this is entirely presumed. We do not know what is behind the glass; whether or not there is an occupant. We live with so much around us that we consider important yet often an abandoned room will contain vestiges of their inhabitants who have since moved on. This becomes part of the history or life of the rooms. A new occupant may change it all but time will ensure that the cycle of dereliction and regeneration continues. These questions have morphed into a fascination with how perception can be distorted. How do we perceive these spaces – do they remind us of our past or do they make us think about where we are and of our own place in time?

Surrealshadow

The digital prints which make up Surrealshadow represent views of the fabricated interiors and exteriors of Surrealight. The patterns of curtains and glass, the interplay of light and shadow and the image of windows all are shown in stasis and as such appear stage-like and inanimate in comparison. It interests me how differently these spaces are perceived and how our emotional response is altered.

Shadowlight

In Shadowlight themes of watching and being watched are presented to the spectator through a non-narrative sequence which hints at the private ethereal existence of spaces independent of us. How does the feeling or knowledge of being watched distort how we behave? Light and shadow play, pattern and effects on glass create an additional visual plane for the viewer sometimes at harmony with the images in the shots and at other times in conflict. The intent is to blur the lines between apparent reality and created fantasy, to look further into what appears straightforward at first glance.

Surrealshadow

11 Digital Archival pigment prints
Surreal Estate: Graphic Studio Gallery: May 2013

The digital prints which make up Surrealshadow represent views of the fabricated interiors and exteriors of Surrealight. The patterns of curtains and glass, the interplay of light and shadow and the image of windows all are shown in stasis and as such appear stage-like and inanimate in comparison. It interests me how differently these spaces are perceived and how our emotional response is altered.

Window Shadows

I was delighted to participate in the PLUID project for Pieta House. I chose windows as a symbolic representation of the restrictions imposed by COVID. They also reflect the shelter that I have been lucky to enjoy with my family in a warm and secure home, with space in which to create.

[Hu]Manned Mission

The moon is a distant object, gazed upon by more humans than any other solid object in the universe (Morton, 2019), yet its surface has only been walked on by 12 white American men. The only people to have experienced it first-hand. However, does that make the rest of our knowledge less valid? 

[Hu]Manned Mission is a pseudoscientific exploration into humans’ interactions with the moon. An appraisal of lunar myths and missions, combining fact with fiction to create new narratives. It offers an invitation to reconnect and communicate with your moon, to consider the importance of language in your quest, because … it matters what stories we tell to tell other stories with; it matters what knots knot knots, what thoughts think thoughts, what descriptions describe descriptions, what ties tie ties. It matters what stories make worlds, what worlds make stories (Haraway, 2016).

CV


EDUCATION
2018 – 2020 MFA Fine Art, NCAD
1989 – 1991 MA Conservation of Fine Art, Newcastle Polytechnic, UK
1985 – 1988 BA History of Art and Archaeology, University College Dublin

EMPLOYMENT
1995 – present Paper Conservator, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin
1994 – 1995 Paper Conservator, Delmas Bindery, Marsh’s Library, Dublin
1993 – 1994 Paper Conservator, National Museums Northern Ireland
1992 – 1993 Conservation Assistant, Bodleian Library, Oxford

AWARDS
2021 Arts Council Visual Arts Bursary Award
2020 Arts Council Professional Development Award
2020 Long listed for the RDS Visual Arts Award
2018 Sponsors Portfolio, Graphic Studio Dublin

SCHOLARSHIPS & RESIDENCIES
2023 Centre Culturel Irlandais
2022 Artist in Residence, Senge Group, Chair of Organic Chemistry, TCD; supported by Science Foundation Ireland
2001 Sharing Conservation Science Scholarship, (ICCROM) The Louvre, Paris
1996 5th ICCROM Japanese Paper Conservation, Kyoto (JPC96) ICCROM

ACCREDITATION and MEMBERSHIP
Member of the Darkroom since 2020
Member of Graphic Studio Dublin since 2010, currently on board of directors.
Accredited member of the Institute of Conservator-Restorers in Ireland

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS
MIDDEN, Luan Gallery Athlone, 01 October – 20 November 2022
Returning Home, in aid of SIMON, Graphic Studio Dublin at CHQ, 27 October – 05 November 2022
Shelter, National Gallery of Ireland, curated by Anne Hodge & Sharon Murphy, 08 July – 12 November 2023
Carapace, Highlanes Gallery Drogheda, 26 August – 14 November 2023
Shelter Collective, Draíocht from 06 December 2023

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2017 Wilgefortis, Graphic Studio Gallery, Dublin 21 April – 09 May
2013 Surreal Estate, OC Architects, Ranelagh Arts Festival, Dublin, 13 – 29 September
2013 Surreal Estate, Graphic Studio Gallery, Dublin, 09 May – 01 June

CURATED EXHIBITIONS
2017 Kennedy, R. McGuinne, N. and Ruane, A., Bristle: Hair and Hegemony, Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022
Geomancy, IMPACT 12 The Printmakers’ Voice, Bristol, 21 – 25 September
Ulysses Imagined, Graphic Studio Gallery, curator Anne Hodge, 11 June – 23 July
you breathe differently down here, Draíocht, curator Amanda Coogan 02 March – 30 April 2022
Gormworm, Tapir Takt Gallery, Berlin 19 March – 16 April
Expanded, curator Andrew Folan, Graphic Studio Gallery, 05 February – 12 March
2021
191st RHA Annual Open Exhibition, 27 September – 30 October
[Hu]Manned Mission, Lumen Crypt, Bethnal Green, London, 26 – 30 October
City, Highlanes Gallery Drogheda, 15 August – 02 October
Woman in the Machine/Artworks 2021, VISUAL Carlow, 04 June – 12 September
Lost and Found, The Darkroom, Dublin, Photoireland festival 2021, 15 – 22 July
UnEditioned, Manhattan Graphics Center, curator Katie Michel, 01 June – 31 July
Diamond Point, Graphic Studio Dublin, 12 December – 15th May 2021
Spectacular Replica, NCAD Gallery, curator Anne Kelly 21 – 29 January
2020
CIACLA Online Program https://ciacla.com/online-program/
NCAD digital Catalogue https://ncad.works/courses/mfa-in-fine-art
The Human Heart, Graphic Studio Dublin 18 June – 22 August
Highlanes Gallery Open Submission 2020, Drogheda, 07 June – 11 July
2019
The Body of Empathy, Hendrix College, Arkansas, USA, September 2018 – 2019
189th RHA Annual Exhibition, RHA, Dublin, 22 May – 11 August
Impressions Biennial, Galway International Arts Festival 15 – 28 July
Come Back to Me, RUA RED, Tallaght, Dublin, 02 – 10 May
2018
10th Sponsors Portfolio, Graphic Studio Gallery, 08 December – 15 January
On the Flipside: Wendy Judge, Niamh McGuinne & Mella Travers, The Darkroom, 19 – 27 August

FILM SCREENINGS / FESTIVALS
2021 Peripheral, Homeland Dog Days,
Damer House Gallery, Roscrea 23 October – 03 November
Alalímon Galeria, Barcelona Loop film festival, 11 November – 18 December
2019 Peripheral, Merciful Hour, The Darkroom, Dublin 3, 10th December
2013 Shadowlight, The Poetry Project, 01 January – 30 September
2013 Shadowlight, Kinsale Arts Festival, 06 – 14 July

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Fitzpatrick, O. Bristle: Hair and Hegemony, eds: Kennedy, R., McGuinne, N. and Ruane, A., Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda, 2017
McGuinne, N. A History of Conservation in Ireland, Museum Ireland, Vol. 15. 2005
Reid, Z. McGuinne N. & Fields, J. The Yeats Archive: a method of identifying wax crayon, IIC Biennial Congress 2002, Baltimore.
McGuinne, N. McLean P. & Plunkett, C. Protecting the Integrity of Impermanent Art, Conference Proceedings IPCRA, 2001
McGuinne, N. Art Meets Science at the National Gallery, Technology Ireland, 1998
O’Connor A. & McGuinne, N. The Deeper Picture – Conservation at the National Gallery of Ireland, NGI 1998

Seeing things

Dimensions: 16cm x 13cm
Thermal transfer stencil on polyester
Unique

Repetition features in a current project; a group of prints with the working title ‘Seeing things’. Here the repetition of a window as motif opens the viewer to the realm of the imagination through the suggestion of presence/absence of everyday objects and hallucinatory like shadows. The intent is to blur the lines between apparent reality and created fantasy, to provoke questions, doubts and intimations of meaning and to look further into what appears straightforward at first glance.

This project stemmed from my interest in windows; through which we both look in and out as a metaphor for our perception of ourselves and surroundings. Using the stylised widow template, I repeated motifs to give both figurative and abstract images of shadows and weather. My intention is to echo an effect of passing car headlights projecting light into a dark room, inviting the imagination to interpret their distorted forms.