Aoife Claffey
1 October to 29 October 2022

I am a multidisciplinary artist based in Cork, Ireland (b.1997). I explore human sensory perception in immersive environments. It is influenced by my interest in human behaviour and the physical exploration of site specific provisional spaces. I create installations by combining mediums such as, interactive projections, reflective found objects, lighting, printmaking with surround sound. My installations encompass notions of unpredictability, fragility and movement.

My installations are often controlled by the viewers participation with the artwork. Shadows may alternate in intensity and scale passing throughout a collaboration adapting and giving awareness of how one can affect an environment. These shadows create marks and drawings in the surrounding space. Reflective and translucent objects shift, and transparent layers of imagery and sound transform unexpectedly each time the work is experienced.

During the process of making I often allow activity to go beyond my control. The work investigates subtly destabilising yet uncanny effects with constant fluctuations which can be engaged with both in a physical but psychological manner. A collective experience but experienced individually. While at Uillinn, I will continue to develop the interactive elements of my practice in site specific locations and create by responding to this new setting. I wish to spend the four weeks researching and developing my artwork while capturing new drone and sound footage in Skibbereen’s dynamic landscape. I will then hold an open studio exhibition displaying the new work made during the residency as part of Uillinn’s public engagement programme. There will also be a print workshop for teenagers where they can create both a conversation and interactive artworks in response to seeing a familiar landscape for them in a new way.

Aoife Claffey is an installation artist, living and working in Cork. Her work explores human sensory perception in provisional spaces and creates installations combining projection film, printmaking, found objects and sound. Physiological and psychological tensions between chaos and order are encouraged both during the making, and within the work, to evoke immersive uncanny effects or altered cognitive states.

She received First Class Honours in both her MA in Art and Process in 2020 and BA in Fine Art in 2019 from CIT Crawford College of Art and Design. Arising from her Degree Show, she was awarded six awards and three residencies, leading to a number of exhibitions and opportunities, including the Sample-Studios Graduate Studio Residency. She is a member of both Sample Studios and Cork Printmakers. Her first major solo show was ‘Mystical Confessions’ in St Lukes, Cork in 2021. Other exhibitions include a solo exhibition ‘8’ in Cork Airport (2021) ‘Cahoots: The Space Between’ (2020/2021), a digital exhibition with selected artists from Galway, Dublin and Cork, and internationally at PRINT.ED #5, Espai Cultural Eina, Barcelona. She is part of the artist collective Inter_Site and has exhibited with them in the Marina Market, The Lord Mayor’s Pavilion and Spike Island Cork in 2021, for which they received the The Arts Council Project Funding. She received The Arts Council Agility Award and was long listed for the RDS Award 2021. Her work is in the collection of Eli Lilly and has been featured in Bloomers Magazine #07: Emerging Female Artists. She just completed a residency and has an Exhibition at PADA Studios and Gallery in Lisbon in August 2022.

@aoifeclaffeyart
aoifeclaffeyart.com

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