Fine Art Research Unit (FARU) Talk: Catriona Leahy

This next FARU talk is a must for anyone interested in site, landscape and ecological concerns and also for those interested in mixed media practices combining Printmaking, Photography, Moving image and Sculpture. All welcome!

Catriona Leahy's work engages in sites wherein a particular dissonance manifests itself temporally, spatially or aesthetically, where anachronistic objects, architecture or particular landscape tropes usher the past into focus with the present. Her interest lies in the remains of cultural phenomena that have been displaced, or have lost their significance in our “progress-driven”, globalised society. Residues on the landscape of our industrial past and the impact this intervention has had on our environment also provide material for investigating the repercussions of a society driven by the capitalist mandate of speed and progress. Using print, photography, moving image, installation and sculpture, attention is drawn to transformations, latent aspects and layered histories. Recent work has been preoccupied with how to reimagine the landscape in a time of ecological crisis, focusing on anthropogenic landscapes – landscapes made or transformed by man’s intervention. In her talk, Catriona will touch on older work that looks to architectural legacies as “leftovers” from a bygone era – the dregs of progress, before focussing on a recent, ongoing research project “Metabolic Rift”. Here, she looks to the Peatlands in the Midlands of Ireland and the effects that extraction capitalism has had on this unique landscape.

Catriona is based in Dublin and completed an MA in Print at the RCA in London in 2013. Awards include Kildare Arts Act Grant (2021), Arts Council of Ireland Professional Development Award (2020), Arts Council of Ireland Visual Arts Bursary (2018), Culture Ireland Award (2018, 2016, 2011) and ACE Grants for the Arts funding (2015/16). She has exhibited nationally and internationally. Recent exhibitions include Agitation Co-op, Temple Bar Gallery and Studios (2021), How the Land, Sirius Arts Centre (2020), Fast Slow Fast, CCA Derry~Londonderry (2019), Unfolding Landscape, De Cacaofabriek, Helmond, The Netherlands (2018), and Coup de Ville 3rd International Triennial, Saint-Niklaas, Belgium (2016) She has numerous artist in residence awards including the Landscape Ecology Environment Research Residency (LEER) (2020), Frans Masereel Centre in Belgium (2015, 2014, 2009), and the Fire Station Artist Studios Digital Media Practice Award (2022).

Event contact: veronique.chance@aru.ac.uk