24th June – 23rd July 2023
This solo exhibition presented new and existing works which expand on some principal concerns regarding Mulholland’s practice and making formal reference to domestic paraphernalia, ecology and archaeological artefacts. Working in a variety of media and across different disciplines, she has consistently been interested in challenging the conceptual boundaries between fine and applied art. Mulholland generally uses a variety of strategies to explore a given brief and photography is an integral part of the research. The images act as visual cues both aesthetically and conceptually – encapsulating the story of place and time.
In sculptural works, she often reduces the formal elements to their component parts to present poetic configurations that cross-references conflicting narratives of ‘nature’ and ‘culture’. A reoccurring thread in Mulholland’s work is the use of colour, light and reflective surfaces to draw attention to the nature of transience, fragility, and cyclical patterns.
Mulholland has always been a keen hiking enthusiast and a passionate collector of natural and found objects. Reflecting on these passions as creative pursuits, the resulting works attempt to map delicately bound embodied experiences, natural entropies and activating exchanges between subject and viewer. The works in the exhibition attempt to explore our conflicted and tenuous relationship with the natural world.
As we are all now so aware, humanity has caused a significant effect on the earth over the previous decades. Unfortunately, flotsam, detritus and waste material from our industrial activities are now ubiquitous along our Donegal shorelines. The results of which, we are beginning to witness with the discovery and subsequent research into new raw materials that carry the legacy of our industries. We now bear witness to the fruits of human-generated ‘natural’ waste. What are the fossils of the future?
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Best known as an interdisciplinary artist, Fiona Mulholland’s practice spans a variety of media and disciplines. She is a graduate of the National College of Art and Design and she holds a master’s degree from the Royal College of Art in London. She has realised several large-scale sculptural works, clients include Dun Laoghaire Harbour Company, Beacon South Quarter, Dublin and the Vocational Education Board in Letterkenny. She has curated several exhibitions and received several funding awards and residency awards including at the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris and at the Leitrim Sculpture Centre. In 2019, She curated ‘Crowded Thresholds’, a touring exhibition for the design and Crafts Council of Ireland which was presented as part of the Kilkenny Arts Festival. Selected exhibitions include: ‘The Golden Fleece Award: 21years’, Solstice Arts Centre. Navan. (2022). ’Unfolding’, DLR Lexicon Municipal Gallery, Dublin. (2021). ‘Other Dimensions’. Luan Gallery. Athlone, (2019). ‘The Keeper: To have and to hold’. The Model, Sligo, (2019). ‘Less + More’. Oonagh Young Gallery. Dublin, (2015). ‘Exploring Spaces’. The Braid Arts Centre. Ballymena and Roe Valley Arts Centre. Limavady. N. Ireland, (2014). ‘The Mystery of Things’. Monster Truck Gallery. Temple Bar. Dublin, (2013). ‘Are we there yet?’. The Warehouse. Glenties. Donegal, (2012). ‘Cutting a Door’. Eastlink Gallery. Shanghai, (2012). ‘None went mad… None ran away’. Rubicon Gallery. Dublin, (2012). ‘Against the Grain’. Leitrim Sculpture Centre. Leitrim, (2013). ‘Reflections on things yet to come’. Leitrim Sculpture Centre. Leitrim, (2011). ‘Constellations’. VISUAL, Centre for Contemporary Art. Carlow, (2010). ‘…and if I listen in I hear my own heart beating…’. Cake Contemporary Arts. Kildare. (2010)
This work has kindly been facilitated by an Artists Bursary Award from Leitrim County Council and Donegal County Council which the artist would like to acknowledge with thanks.
