Fiona Mc Donald win ARTWORKS Prize 2021
This year’s ARTWORKS Open Submission invited responses to the title Woman in the Machine, to our current technological moment and the effect that the evolving digital world is having on life and practice.
Fiona Mc Donald’s work uses computing and coding to produce artworks that bring us closer to nature. Her practice is at the intersection of art and engineering, working primarily with sculpture, sound, installation, print, hardware and code to create process-based data-driven works. Recent works explore data from the natural environment. This work creates an interface between the slow, small changes which constantly occur in the natural world and technological systems. Five artworks by Fiona are on display in the gallery at VISUAL as part of Woman in the Machine, and a sixth can be viewed at www.womaninthemachine.com
The winner of the Eigse Graduate Prize is Judy Foley. Judy worked in analytical chemistry before going back to art school and retraining as an artist. This atypical background has given her an acute understanding of how science can influence art – and crucially to her works in Woman in the Machine, how art can influence science. Foley has two artworks in the exhibition: to sew a heart and to mend an aorta iii, both glass vitrines housing tiny hand-stitched sculptures based on industry design templates for bioprosthetic heart valves and aortic stents, made to scale for human hearts.
The judging panel highlighted two works as Highly Commended. Jennifer Moore’s sound piece and performance Future Lights and Archetypes which was performed at VISUAL on Friday 11 September to a captivated audience and Amanda Rice’s engaging film No One Can Embargo the Sun, about the ways in which technology harnesses sun light.
Selectors for VISUAL’s annual open submission were Kate Butler, Dublin Digital Radio; Rachel O’Dwyer, Lecturer in Digital Culture NCAD; Jo Mangan, Director Carlow Arts Festival and Emma Lucy O’Brien, Artistic Director, VISUAL.
Woman in the Machine, co-created by VISUAL and Carlow Arts Festival - took over VISUAL, the behemoth former Braun factory, and digital platforms, features 50 original arts projects and the work of hundreds of artists. Across the summer it unfolded through film, exhibitions, sound works, light installations, digital native events, a 360 virtual exhibition space, performances, talks and community engagement projects.
Woman in the Machine is part of Carlow Arts Festival 2021, VISUAL Carlow’s Summer Programme and presented as part of Brightening Air | Coiscéim Coiligh, a nationwide, ten day season of arts experiences brought to you by the Arts Council Ireland.
The exhibition runs at VISUAL until 19 September.
About the Artists
Fiona Mc Donald is a Dublin-based interdisciplinary artist. She holds a BSc in Biological Chemistry from the University of Ulster a BA & MA in Fine Art from NCAD & an MSc in Multimedia Systems TCD. Recent exhibitions include Sensing Ecologies, an immersive geo-located audio tour created for Bull Island exploring biodiversity, climate change, sensors and bioindicators (2019); In the age of Conscious Makers, NCAD Gallery (2019) and Gateways, a solo exhibition curated by Linda Shevlin at Roscommon Arts Centre (2018). Mc Donald is currently Artist in Residence in Technology and Innovation at Talent Garden on DCU Alpha Campus, supported by the Arts Council of Ireland and DCU. In 2019 she was an Artist In Residence and was a 2018 recipient of the Arts Council Bursary Award. She is a UCD Parity Studios Associate Artist and a member of OMG Orthogonal Methods Group at CONNECT TCD.
Judy Foley has an interdisciplinary background rooted in art practice and science. She holds an MA in Art & Research Collaboration (2019) and a BA in Visual Arts Practice (2007) from Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design + Technology and a BSc in Chemistry from University College Cork (1981). Projects and exhibitions include a residency post with Trinity Centre for Bioengineering and AMBER in Trinity College Dublin, culminating in a solo show, Foreign Body at the O’Reilly Institute, TCD (2019); Ex Voto: The Body + The Institution at Galway Arts Centre (2018); Statecraft, a collaborative partnership with IMMA’s National Programme (2016) and Holding Together, an exhibition to celebrate 50 years of the Modern Art Collection of Trinity College Dublin, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin (2010). Recent work has been selected for the 190th RHA Annual Exhibition (2020) and Winter Open, Rua Red, Dublin (2019). Awards include the TCD Performing and Visual Arts Award (2019).