^ Collective
Manorhamilton
In 2022, ^ collective was formed with artists Laura McMorrow, James Kelly, Tara Baoth Mooney and Shane Finan. We have a private work space and event space on the Main Street of Manorhamilton.
In 2023, we collaborated on a project called Waking the Land, funded by the Irish Hospice Foundation's Compassionate Culture Network through Creative Ireland Programme funding.
Here is my reflection on the project - This project highlighted the importance of Benbo Mountain's presence and allowed us to see the mountain in a new and positive light, up close and full of life. The social sessions provided a time and space to make together which facilitated open and incidental conversations around the theme of environmental grief. This facilitated a creative and welcoming environment with no pressure to create finished work, playing with materials, recycled and natural where possible. For our own session, we made a banner together as a collective. I had never worked with textiles before, but I really enjoyed the tactile nature of working with fabric and the repetitive and mindful activity of sewing side by side. The process of working together and learning from each other was very valuable and we have enough research to continue exploring our ideas and local landscape.
Article in VAI Newsletter
July/August 2020
Book Launch
Sat 25 May 2019 / 5.30pm Gallery of Photography
Signed Limited edition of 50 , €20 per book.
This limited edition book-object is the result of a fruitful collaboration between the artist and the publishing collective, Stereoeditions, giving form and context to a series of digital and paper collages created in recent years from a diversity of found materials.
Stereo Editions is an experimental publishing collective bringing together artists, writers, and filmmakers from diverse geographical and intellectual spheres for the production and distribution of limited editions, objects, films, and sounds. Founded in Marseilles in 2016 by Helena Gouveia Monteiro and Juliette Liautaud, the collective has subsequently worked on projects in France, Ireland, Portugal, and the Czech Republic. All of our ethically produced editions are numbered and signed by their authors, with whom we collaborate closely and to whom we return half of all proceeds. Stereo Editions’ publications range from photo-books to DVD and CD editions, to graphic and conceptual works or literary creations. Each project is different as its form responds to the author’s intentions and to the specificities of each original work.
LUX Salon: Looking Aside presented with Catalyst Arts
Sat 10 Mar 2018 / 3pm - 5pm LUX, Waterlow Park Centre £5 / £3 (concession)
LUX and Catalyst Arts present Looking Aside, a screening programme curated by Catalyst Arts and Seamus Harahan on the occasion of his BL CK B X exhibition: shiney wet stones.
The programme of works have been chosen for their inventive image-making and action-making, creating transformative pathways through a marked sense of attention and generosity towards their material—a description not unlike Seamus’ work itself. The work has been selected from a varied pool of emerging practitioners connected to Catalyst, Seamus and Belfast. With work by Jamie Buckley, Aideen Doran, Kathryn Elkin, Laura McMorrow and Kate Murphy.
The Lost Acre
Artist in Residence - Exhibition Launch
Opening Reception: Friday 9th February 2018, 5-8pm at Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Manorhamilton
Exhibition statement: In Irish folklore, ‘the lost acre’ refers to an area in the landscape where you can be lead astray. This enchantment can last for several hours during which your time is unaccounted for and familiar places may look different. In the Irish language the phenomenon is known as Fóidin Mearbhaill, or treacherous soil. Often, a person might hear their name called or see someone they thought they knew and follow, only to be found hours or days or even weeks later with no memory of how they came to be miles away from where they should be.
Incorporating video, sculpture, painting and collage McMorrow’s exhibition appropriates archival landscape imagery in depictions of other-worldly encounters where the everyday is haunted by memory, anxiety and humour. Found materials such as wood, stone and lichen reference the passing of time whilst souvenirs from charity shops often work as surfaces to paintings that subtly shift the meaning of the original.
The video work is a recording of studio experiments. Drawing on the aesthetics of science fiction films and nature documentaries McMorrow uses materials like wax, ice, and jelly to invent a world where the familiar becomes strange. The film seeks to explore the patterns and forces that influence The Lost Acre phenomena and its combination of sensory and surreal perception.
Exhibition runs until Saturday 3rd March
Make Good Publication
My work has been selected for a limited-edition magazine. 100% of proceeds will be donated to All Hands Volunteers, a US-based, 501(c)3 non-profit organization that addresses the immediate and long-term needs of communities impacted by natural disasters by engaging and leveraging volunteers, partner organizations and local communities.
The publication can be purchased online here
EIARA Burren College of Art
In October 2017 I spent one month on a residency in the Burren College of Art. I was one of four artists awarded the Emerging Irish Artist Residency Award. This included an individual studio space and access to all college facilities. Together we will curate and organise a group show based on our time in the Burren which will be held in the BCA Gallery in 2018 and will travel to G126 Gallery in Galway.
Here's a link
LSC Exhibition and Residency
I'm honoured to have won first prize in the Leitrim Sculpture Centre's exhibition North West Summer Open 2016.
The prize is a solo exhibition within the next two years plus private studio with access to technical facilities for one month. Happy days!
The Leitrim Sculpture Centre is such an amazing resource and just happens to be located in my hometown of Manorhamilton!
Here's a link
Pop up show curated by Peter Morgan in LSAD.
My work has been featured on the blog Triangulation.
Here's a link
My collage work has been included in Issue 13 of online photography magazine Super Massive Black Hole. Check out the issue here
