Caoimhín Gaffney

All At Once Collapsing Together

11 January to 15 February 2025

All at Once Collapsing Together is a new body of work by Caoimhín Gaffney. Spanning film, photography and writing All at Once Collapsing Together uses fiction to imagine new ways of relating to the natural world. Images throughout the exhibition act as mirrors to the healing and relief the environment can offer, with narratives fraught with climate anxiety interrupting and reframing these as temporary and fragile.

The film and texts are without traditional narratives or character arcs, aiming to create an unsettled terrain that reflects the uncomfortable emotions and sensations they discuss. The work asks us to consider how important natural sensory information is to our sense of self: what does it mean for a sound to go missing from our ecosystem? When we no longer hear our native birds, which parts of ourselves will be forgotten?

The exhibition examines the restorative power of nature alongside the irreconcilable reality of the climate crisis and represents a critical development in the artist’s practice, as they expand from single-channel film work into an installation of multi-screen film, medium format photography, printed text pieces and neon text.

Caoimhín Gaffney is an artist, filmmaker and writer whose work has been shown in exhibitions and film festivals internationally. Notable solo exhibitions include the Crawford Art Gallery, Cork; Block 336 in London and the Contemporary Art Institute CAI02 in Sapporo. Gaffney's films have screened at prestigious festivals including European Media Arts Festival, Cork Film Festival, and London Short Film Festival where they received the Little White Lies award. Their international recognition includes being an UNESCO-Aschberg Laureate artist-in-residence at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art’s Changdong residency in South Korea, and receiving a Sky Arts scholarship. Gaffney holds an MA Photography and Moving Image from the Royal College of Art and obtained their PhD from Ulster University's School of Arts Humanities & Social Sciences in 2022. 

A national touring exhibition, All At Once Collapsing Together was initiated and developed by lead partner The Butler Gallery, Kilkenny with Highlanes Gallery Drogheda and Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre, and is supported by a Touring Award from the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon.     

WCAC acknowledges the financial support of Arts Council Ireland and Cork County Council in making these exhibitions possible.