Tanya de Paor
Dear Friends of the Lost Battalion
DATES
4 June to 10 July 2025
TIMES
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Tanya de Paor
Dear Friends of the Lost Battalion
4 June to 10 July 2025
Studio open to the public Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday
From sacred interpretation to Darwinian perspectives of evolution, humanity and animals have a deep and shared history in consciousness and life. According to Berger, animals first entered people’s imagination as messengers. I am interested in narratives of animals co-opted into the project of human survival and conquest and as harbingers of sustainable, just futures. The title of my residency draws on the story of a homing pigeon deployed by the military to deliver communications behind enemy lines during World War 1. Historical accounts of Cher Ami evoke themes of interdependence, resilience, courage, home and war, which will inform the residency work.
My aims for the residency include researching and developing a body of artwork for exhibition comprising drawings, sculptures, sound recordings and installations. My objective is to create a community of practice for the duration of the residency (and possibly beyond) to collectively discuss encounters of nature and biodiversity conservation. The proposed outcome will focus on creating a series of drawings and animated artworks informed by the studio practice, recordings, fieldnotes and conversations.
My work addresses questions of how contemporary art practices contribute to a shared understanding of and response to the Anthropocene, known as the Age of Man, through the use of eco-art, socially engaged pedagogic practices, and theoretical research. The paradoxes inherent in the Anthropocene concept, which both makes visible and obscures the connections between living entities and the environment, are an ongoing focus of my work. Ecology, based on the concepts of home and interconnectedness, is proposed as a useful framework to counter Anthropocenic fragmentation and isolation. In contrast to the visual aestheticising of much climate change art, leading to feelings of overwhelm and paralysis, contemporary eco-art practices can promote a more engaged, ecological worldview by making the threads of interconnection visible. The residency provides opportunities to interrogate themes of animals as messengers and imagine how speculative communications could shape innovative responses to current and emergent challenges.
“Uillinn’s West Cork Arts Centre commitment to supporting and advocating for the role of creative practice and community engagement from the periphery rural position provides a unique space for making art. I am excited to participate in the residency and to see what emerges in my practice”
Tanya de Paor is an artist, researcher and educator. Her work is multidisciplinary and includes sculpture, drawing, installation, and lens-based media. She works with creative communities of practice to generate spaces to collectively address ecological issues. Aesthetic and sensory elements in her work are aimed at drawing in the audience to think about connections and interdependencies with nature. Her work entwines eco-art and socially engaged art, focused on relatable micro-political and domestic scales. Together with participants, she co-creates speculative fables in a playful examination of how to understand and respond to environmental impacts.
WCAC acknowledges the financial support of Cork County Council and The Arts Council in making these residencies possible.