UCD Artist in Residence with iCRAG - Irish Centre for Research in Applied Geosciences 2020/21
My practice explores links between people, nature and technology, bound by an interest in perceptions of time, the earth sciences and practices of divination. My projects are typically developed through conversations and engagement with communities of interest, including community-based organisations, citizen scientists, academics and members of the scientific community. I realise my ideas through various media including moving image, installation and drawing and mainly present my work in galleries in the form of exhibitions, at video screening events, and through giving public artist talks.
Over several years, my work has examined technologies of meteorological measure from weather recording to climate modelling. Through these explorations, I consider how computational ways of seeing affect our possibilities for being, acting and thinking in the world.
More recently, I have turned to the ocean floor. My interest here circulates around ideas of remoteness, technologised vision and unbreachable distance. Exploring the scientific methods used to access and gather research on life on the sea bed, and the resulting information brought to the surface, I consider the paradox of an ecosystem at once highly surveilled, extraordinarily biodiverse and increasingly precarious. It is this research that I hope to expand upon during this residency.
Over the course of the residency I aim to develop a body of work experimenting with various media including video, installation, printmaking and drawing. This new work will consider what it means for life in the submarine terrains of the ocean to simultaneously exist in an age of exploration and in an age of extinction. Focussing on coral species residing in the abyssal plains of the NE Atlantic Ocean, west of Ireland, and explore alternative perspectives on these remote ecosystems whilst examining the precarities surrounding their existence.
Martina O’Brien is a visual artist based in Co. Kildare and recent member of TBG+S (2019/20). Recent commissions and residencies include Science Gallery Dublin Rapid Residency (2020); Project commission & residency, European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, ITL (2019); Artist in Residence, European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, UK (2019) & Artist in Residence, Monitoring Changes in Submarine Canyon Coral Habitats Research Expedition, N. E. Atlantic, through UCD Parity Studios in partnership with iCRAG (2019). Recent solo exhibitions include Quotidian, Illuminations, NUI Maynooth (2019/20) and At Some Distance in the Direction Indicated, Butler Gallery (2018). Recent group exhibitions include New Era, Solstice Arts Centre (2020); Datami, BOZAR, Brussels & JRC, ITL (2019) & Tactical Magic, TULCA (2019).
ucdartistsinresidence.com/martina-obrien
My practice explores links between people, nature and technology, bound by an interest in perceptions of time, the earth sciences and practices of divination. My projects are typically developed through conversations and engagement with communities of interest, including community-based organisations, citizen scientists, academics and members of the scientific community. I realise my ideas through various media including moving image, installation and drawing and mainly present my work in galleries in the form of exhibitions, at video screening events, and through giving public artist talks.
Over several years, my work has examined technologies of meteorological measure from weather recording to climate modelling. Through these explorations, I consider how computational ways of seeing affect our possibilities for being, acting and thinking in the world.
More recently, I have turned to the ocean floor. My interest here circulates around ideas of remoteness, technologised vision and unbreachable distance. Exploring the scientific methods used to access and gather research on life on the sea bed, and the resulting information brought to the surface, I consider the paradox of an ecosystem at once highly surveilled, extraordinarily biodiverse and increasingly precarious. It is this research that I hope to expand upon during this residency.
Over the course of the residency I aim to develop a body of work experimenting with various media including video, installation, printmaking and drawing. This new work will consider what it means for life in the submarine terrains of the ocean to simultaneously exist in an age of exploration and in an age of extinction. Focussing on coral species residing in the abyssal plains of the NE Atlantic Ocean, west of Ireland, and explore alternative perspectives on these remote ecosystems whilst examining the precarities surrounding their existence.
Martina O’Brien is a visual artist based in Co. Kildare and recent member of TBG+S (2019/20). Recent commissions and residencies include Science Gallery Dublin Rapid Residency (2020); Project commission & residency, European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, ITL (2019); Artist in Residence, European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, UK (2019) & Artist in Residence, Monitoring Changes in Submarine Canyon Coral Habitats Research Expedition, N. E. Atlantic, through UCD Parity Studios in partnership with iCRAG (2019). Recent solo exhibitions include Quotidian, Illuminations, NUI Maynooth (2019/20) and At Some Distance in the Direction Indicated, Butler Gallery (2018). Recent group exhibitions include New Era, Solstice Arts Centre (2020); Datami, BOZAR, Brussels & JRC, ITL (2019) & Tactical Magic, TULCA (2019).
ucdartistsinresidence.com/martina-obrien
