How have the events over the past two years affected your work?
I spent the end of second year and the entirety of third year at home in Northern Ireland, which meant my art practice and research processes had to adapt to the changing circumstances resulting from the pandemic. My artistic enquiries shifted towards my immediate environment and I started using sculpture as a way of probing or better understanding my surroundings. Humour, which was always on the periphery of my practice, has become increasingly important.
The forced detachment from white cube spaces opened up interesting sculptural possibilities to create a dialogue between my sculptures and the context in which they are placed. And the lack of studio space made me seek out the opportunity of digital collaboration, which I found energised me and enabled me to broaden my enquiries.
When I look back, time spent outdoors has always been a form of unconscious research for me, and being able to install or construct sculptures outdoors has felt like a natural progression of this.
Coming back to ECA, after 18 months of living and working at home, felt like another significant change, and my practice has adapted to include more specialist processes. However, I think my shift to more ‘parochial’ enquiries during the pandemic will continue to shape my practice.
