Ideal Development Opportunity
PSSquared, Belfast, April 2024
Ash Anraí-Jones, Laura Nelson, Katharine Paisley, Aiden Brady, Thomas Wells
‘Ideal Development Opportunity invites five artists to engage with and reimagine Belfast’s structures, whether built or social. Artists have met with communities of interest to develop responses in five different areas of the city (Botanic, Court, Sailortown, Skegoneill, and Titanic), with PS² acting as a central hub and research repository.
The project is longitudinal. The exhibition presents an evolving body of research from each of the artists, with opportunities for participation taking place through events with invited groups and visitors to the Project Space. Images from the artists' ongoing research will also be displayed on the PeasPark siteboard throughout 2024 as conversations and relationships continue to develop.’ -PS2
My piece within the exhibition invited the audience to add their own personal stories of place to a table or very vague map of Belfast. I was interested in their version of Belfast and what memories or stories constructed it. My take on ‘Ideal Development Opportunity’ is that developers coming into a city have no idea of the lived place. A place cannot be sensitively developed without first understanding the people, memories and histories forming that place.
Live Art Ireland
Micro-residency, November 2023During my time on the mirco-residency, I created an artist intervation. At the time of the trip to Tipperary I was still thinking about loss, which was being echoed by the season. There was an avenue of beech trees at the back of the cottage I was staying in, which is where I spent most of my time. While I was walking through the avenue, the trees were all dropping leaves in large numbers. Loss, they were experiencing loss. I decided to retether the falling leaf to its tree. By capturing a falling leaf and sewing it back on to the tree it fell from I was stopping time, preventing the course of nature. I repeated this action throughout my stay. I hope to continue an investigation into ways to stop time.
I also performed ‘Holding Place, part 1’, within Sinead O’Donnell. Sinead was also thinking about grief and loss during her stay in Tipperary. The balloons were tied to the rusting metal love seat using the thread from ‘How to stop time, part 1’. The balloons remained after attached to the love seat after the performance.
Uprooted
Threshold, Flax Project Space, July 2023Duo Show with Matthew Wilson.
This is the documentation of a performance to camera, ‘Uprooted’. Uprooted, explores the struggle and loss of identity experienced in the wake of a death. This work is supported by the National Lottery through the Arts Council of NI.
BIFPA 2023
March 20-24thBelfast International Festival of Performance Art Northern Ireland's leading showcase of contemporary performance art, showcasing the best Irish and international performance artists to local and visiting audiences.
‘An Absence’, Durational performance, 2 hours, charcoal, canvas and floodlight.
This performance was the continutation of an experimentation with performance in March 2022. The original piece took influence from Plato's allegory of the cave; in which the shadow represented a fake truth or an illusion of reality. Using charcoal, water and tempera paint, I attemped to outline or contain my shadow. An attempt to cement or control my reality, which was not and could not be achieved. In this performance peice, I once again attempted to capture my shadow. This time the performance was exploring, how to capture the presence of absense, the trace of a loss. I simplified the materials to canvas and charcoal.
Images c/o Dr Sandra Johnston.
fine thanks
Opening 2nd February 2023- Late Night Art.Flax Project Space, Belfast
Group exhibition
2nd - 12th February 2023
' Join us at Flax Project Space for 'Fine Thanks’, opening between 6.00-9.00pm on Thursday 2nd February as part of Belfast’s Late-Night Art. Opening hours: 12-4pm Thursday, Friday, and Saturday until 11th February. On behalf of the Flax Art Studios Emerging Artists (FASE) programme we present the third in our new six month program in the North Street Project Space. ‘Fine Thanks’ showcases a collaborative video artwork by four of the FASE HUB artists. Featuring a blend of internet clips, including animal videos, Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, and renditions of Beethoven, ‘Fine Thanks’ invites you to step into the simultaneous comfort and chaos of living online. Somewhat surreal, somewhat stupid, what emerges is a dizzying digital collage. '
