Vicki Davis 2025

Vicki Davis
Out of the Darkness, There Comes Light
2 to 22 December 2025

I will open my studio up to the public daily and will live stream inside the studio on Youtube from 11am – 2pm each day on weekdays.

Vicki’s research residency, titled “Out of the Darkness, There Comes Light,” aims to confront and process personal trauma through performance art and painting. This project is an introspective exploration of using the body to release traumatic echoes resulting from undiagnosed dyslexia. She will use mixed media elements, such as a battle rope, black wool, and a chain, to represent the inner struggle of living with a weak auditory memory and slow processing speed, incorporating them into expressionist paintings. The filmed process will form the basis for a new expanded cinema piece.

After a year earning her MA in Film and Television Production at Ulster University Belfast, with a focus on Immersive Storytelling and Documentary Filmmaking, Vicki will reconnect with her art practice. She intends to blend her new production skills with her background in performance art and experimental film to write a performance and film score.

Vicki has long felt that there was something wrong with her brain. Her ‘battle rope’ represents confliction and is a metaphor for a neuron that had disconnected itself from her body and mind. While studying for her MA, she experienced ‘burnout’, which led to a dyslexia diagnosis. She now knows that this neuron represents her neurodivergent mind. Vicki will be exploring the frustration and anxiety that stem from living life with an undiagnosed processing difficulty. She will be questioning the school systems misjudgement and the inequalities of a capitalistic social structure, while focusing on painting as a cathartic outlet. She will be using the body as a medium alongside the physical act of throwing white chalk as a therapeutic way to release stress.

Vicki will connect with the community by opening her studio up to the public through a live stream that will be broadcast from 11am to 2pm daily on Youtube. Inviting the public inside the artist’s studio.

Artist quote; ‘The brain is malleable’

Vicki holds a degree in Visual Art from Technological University Dublin, Sherkin B.A.V.A, 2020, and a postgraduate degree in Film and Television Production from Ulster University, Belfast, 2025. Her art practice is multidisciplinary; she utilises performance art, photography, experimental sound, expanded cinema, immersive sculptural installation and participation in her art practice. Vicki’s work is informed by the lived experience, consumerism and environmental issues. In her most recent work, she has promoted the positive benefits that physical activity, and dance has on mental health by juxtaposing scenes of distress over architectural sites known for their ability to create well-being.

https://www.instagram.com/_vicki.davis/?hl=en

https://www.vickidavis-visualartist.com/

Image: Vicki Davis, Mettle, Expanded Cinema, cinesalonfestival24

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