Siobhán McDonald: Traces of Air
Siobhán McDonald: Traces of Air
6. STUDIOTOPIA Artist Siobhan Mc Donald in residency and Scientific Committee to address urgent societal and environmental challenges
The aim of STUDIOTOPIA is to raise public awareness and foster creative and critical reflections about actual societal challenges as the rise and plasticisation of the oceans, the extinction of threatened species, the climate urgency, clean energy and the future of health and well-being.
Eight European institutions engage and collaborate for a more sustainable future by connecting artists with scientists through the long term STUDIOTOPIA Art&Science Residency programme. Artists visit scientific labs and, for once, scientists leave their labs to enter the artists’ studio, engage in public discussions, exhibitions and collaborate on common projects.
One of them is Siobhán McDONALD who was invited to join the PBU´s efforts on aspects of plant cell totipotency bridging time and space.
Includes 'The Sound of Trees,' a series of new paintings exploring plants and trees, from the changing light recorded in forests over the past number of months, to Irish peatlands - ancient landscapes that are the sole custodians of unique plants that have accumulated over many millions of years. Some of these works seek to capture the innate environment-sensing capacity of plants, trees and underground networks as witnesses of history. They hold an embodied memory of time, reminding us of how time and memory shift and that everything is connected by substance, form and history. With thanks to Creative Ireland and the Arts Council.
Siobhán McDonald’s practice draws attention to contemporary topics dealing with air, breath and atmospheric phenomena, weaving scientific knowledge into her art in a poetic and thoughtful manner. In 2021 she is selected to work with European Cultural Institutions such as Center for Fine Arts BOZAR and Ars Electronica on a new project about environmental change. The commissioned artworks will be presented at the Serpentine Gallery and Ars Electronica in 2023.
Siobhan is artist in residence in the School of Natural Sciences at Trinity College Dublin (2020-2023,) working with world-leading research facilities such as The European Space Agency (ESA) and The JRC European Commission to explore ecology in light of current ecological concerns. Across research labs, she pursues knowledge to ask questions about the structure and history of the earth. She calls on notions of what is still unknown to science, exploring the Anthropocene and the recent consequences of our treatment of nature. Siobhan’s work with water and glaciers deploys a unique artistic language that gives form to intangible and richly varied processes including painting, drawing, film and sound.
Recent awards include: Visual Arts Bursary 2020, Creative Ireland Award 2020 and Climate Whirl Arts Programme Helsinki 2020. Recent shows include: Uillinn, 2021; Bozar, Brussels, 2020; Deutsches Hygiene-Museum DHMD, 2020; Volta, Basel 2019; Limerick City Art Gallery, 2019; Deutsches Hygiene-Museum DHMD, 2019; The National Trust-Fox Talbot Museum, UK, 2018; Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris, 2018, among others. Her work is represented in many collections, both public and private such as The Arts Council of Ireland, Allied Irish Banks, Bank of Ireland, The Ulster Museum and Trinity College Dublin.