Niamh McCann is an Irish artist living and working in Dublin. She was one of the artists selected to take part in Artlink’s Artist Residency Programme in 2017. A graduate of Chelsea College of Art & Design, London, Naimh has exhibited extensively in Europe, Ireland and in the USA. “I think of myself largely as a landscape artist – of the constructed landscape, the stuff we make, the stuff we consume”. With the rural landscape itself commonly conceived of as unfabricated or unconstructed, that idea of the constructed landscape is particularly striking. Naimh has spoken of her art practice constantly engaging with the notion of a specific circular narrative; how we shape our environment and how it shapes us in return. The primary context of Artlink Fort Dunree as a site is of course the historic resonance of the location and the beauty of the surrounding habitat. As a decommissioned historic military fort, the site contains what the artist could describe as the visual debris of history. The Fort Dunree site sees the display of redundant military equipment and infrastructure, the symbolic language of nation and military in the visual culture and design of the location. The artist worked with the histories, stories and resonances within both these historical and natural landscapes by engaging with them through a precise and defined visual language – the symbolic language of flag-making. The artist explored the Fort Dunree archives and museum, local folklore and indigenous landscape, to compile a potential list of symbols for use on a flag which is both functional and beautiful: “a functioning object, to represent and state intent within the local community, a flag to join, not divide(which)would exist as standalone artwork, capable of being sited and integrated into the fabric of and function of the location”
- June 11, 2017
