I am a female, Irish artist based in Co. Down. I have an integrated approach to my practice, combining sculptural, ceramic, mark making and live performance processes in my work. My attention alternates between themes of relationships, marginalisation, and permissions, applying perceptions of memory and experience through a semi-autobiographic and gendered lens. This is underpinned, or undermined, with an internal cycle of dialogue regarding conceptual and material values, and the validity of outcomes, influenced by learned perceptions of what art is.

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Recognition, recollection and connection are significant considerations threaded throughout my work. The worth and consequence of objects and materials, implied and perceived, is an underlying motive in the forms I make.

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Learned notions of value and hierarchies formed by collective memory can create barriers to creativity, for the practitioner or viewer. This collective memory is drawn from many directions: remembered experience, books, television, museums and although we think of memory as subjective, it is developed and located in the ways our society makes sense of things. The unreliability of memory, in addition to time and age, can reshape how we recall experiences, and our interpretation of them. My cyclical return to themes and materials permits a recalibration, unravelling and giving a fresh perspective of events. My work has evolved from exploring issues around the visibility of women through stages of aging, patriarchy and marginalisation towards more diverse themes and a less gendered outlook.

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Through repetition and evolution, I make performance and use technical processes that allow for alternate outcomes to occur, often reproducing multiple variations of small to medium pieces of work. My sculpted forms are often fragile yet haptic. The size and texture of the clay forms I make are intended to entice the viewer to break traditional gallery behaviour and touch the objects. I enjoy pricking the curiosity of the viewer enough to get them to want to physically engage with my work. Accessibility to art is important to me and I realise that different threads of my practice weave together towards a collective democracy of access to and engagement with art.

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Biography

After working across multiple industry sectors I completed a BA Fine Art in 2017, a Graduate Artist Residency at Ulster University in 2018 and joined Pollen Studios and Gallery. I went on to complete the Master of Fine Art course at Belfast School of Art, finishing a Distinction and receiving the Void Gallery and Bbeyond Graduate Awards, 2023.

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As an active member of Pollen Studios (2017-2022) my time included collaborative exhibition programming, occasional curating and committee secretary. This gave me the opportunity to be involved in city wide network of events and exhibitions, supporting other artists and organisations and contributing to the promotion of visual arts and culture at a grass roots level.

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In 2017 I joined the team at R-Space at the Linen Rooms Gallery in Lisburn, Co Down, undertaking a range of roles from job sharing the office manager role to artist in residence. I have continued to support the creative director with curation, liaison with exhibiting artists and occasional workshops. 

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Based in an accessible ground floor studio space at Springmount, Dromore. I keep in contact with the Belfast art network through committee membership of several organisations.

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Please contact me if you are interested in visiting Springmount studio or just want to get in touch.

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