ENTWINED: rural land lives art
1st December-14th December 2021
Assembly House, Newcastle Arts Centre, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, UK
Group exhibition and book launch, curated by Cynthia Morrison-Bell (artcircuit)
The second exhibition of the artists who took part in the ENTWINED programme over a three-year period in Norhumberland UK.
Two interactive artworks included in this leg of the exhibition programme: Macalla and The Power of Inconspicuous Things.
From the exhibition press release:
This exhibition is the culmination of the ENTWINED programme which sought to take a closer look at the interconnection between all things. Through the artists’ eyes and imagination, informed by research gathered from readings, personal observation, embodied experience and shared knowledge, the works unveil what lies within, beneath and beyond the tangible or intangible realms of what makes a ‘place’.
Supported by:
Reboot Me Softly
18th November-21st November 2021
Palmera, Bergen, Norway
19th annual Piksel Festival for Electronic Art and Free Technologies, curated by Maite Cajaraville and Gisle Frøysland
Two interactive artworks have been selected to be part of the 2021 exhibition programme for Piksel, an international network and annual event for electronic art and technological freedom.
The works are part of the broader programme of workshops, exhibitions and events. Two artworks exhibiting are Macalla (2021) from the The Wood Wide Web and It seemed like we were moving closer together from the 2021 solo exhibition Detached Touch.
From the exhibition press release
This year ́s edition of Piksel festival is held between 18th-21st November, celebrating free/libre technologies and technological freedom. The slogan for this year’s edition of Piksel is the highly relevant phrase ́Reboot me softly'...showing art pieces that deal with the post-pandemic state of mind we are in, in conflux with the altered state of planet earth.
FIELDS
31st October 2021-31st January 2022
Museum of English Rural Life, Reading, UK
3-person exhibition and other academic project presentations
Work exhibiting at the Museum of English Rural Life from artist residency with Project FIELD.
From the exhibition text:
Shane Finan is a visual artist from the North West of Ireland. For six months he has been interviewing farmers and observing the behaviours of sheep across the North of England and Ireland. Creating artwork for people to reflect on both online and in-person he has combined traditional observational drawing with digital technologies to create a series of online stories using a mix of documentary, photography and data visualisation.
ENTWINED: rural land lives art
4th September-12th September 2021
Visual Arts in Rural Communities, Highgreen, Northumberland, UK
Group exhibition, curated by Cynthia Morrison-Bell (artcircuit)
A group exhibition of the artists who took part in the ENTWINED programme over a three-year period in Norhumberland UK.
Two interactive artworks were included in this leg of the exhibition programme, including the debut of the work Macalla and the first open audience view of The Power of Inconspicuous Things.
From the exhibition text:
Shane’s interactive piece ‘The Power of Inconspicuous Things’ located in the Potting Shed, invites you into a darkened room to activate and experience a mycorrhizal system of light below ground, bringing together entangled and entwined networks.
‘Macalla’ -the Irish Gaeilge word for an ‘echo’, translated as ‘the child of a shout’ - is an interactive piece focussing on the tubes used in tree planting. It can be found in the Coal Shed. ‘This Wildwood is not a forest for future timber, it is being planted to remain for future generations of trees, humans and wildlife. What will the tress tell their future children and grandchildren? How will they explain what it was like to spend their first ten years inside a tube, never feeling the air, reaching up toward the sky?’
Tāctus - 17th Athens Digital Arts Festival
20th September-30th October 2021
Areos & Kladou street, 105 55 Athens, Greece
Official selection for the 17th Athens Digital Arts Festival with the film Because The Exchange is Complete
Film is a result of the 6-month artist-in-residence programme FIELD.
Screening took place both online and as part of the outdoor screening event, Athens.
From the exhibition text for artwork:
Who is really being farmed? Sheep and cows have spread to every continent, attached to humans, and humans benefit from their company in many ways. An exchange has taken place. Drawing from posthuman philosophy and speculative ethics, artist Shane Finan explores this idea of exchange and relationship between animal and human.
detached touch
13th August-4th September 2021
Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Manorhamilton, Ireland
Solo exhibition following two-month exhibition residency, curated by Sean O'Reilly
From the exhibition text:
Working across technology and environmental contexts, Shane Finan considers how nonhuman entities such as animals, plants and geologies might contribute to a technological artistic process.
Finan has constructed three installations each using technology in a different way to explore the complex relationships between place, networks, technologies, critters and human activity, and how all these things are linked together.
Supported by Leitrim Sculpture Centre and Wicklow Arts Office 2021
FIELDS
8th August-13th October 2021
varoius markets and cinema screenings, England
Film, drawing, text, online, interactive work as part of interdisciplinary project
part of the project ]EXPOSURE[[ENCLOSURE], these stories are drawn from artist-in-residence visits to ten farms in late 2020 and early 2021 as part of artistic research into endemic livestock disease and more-than-human relationships.
how do we describe our relationships with those more-than-human critters we surround ourselves with? how do we learn to see what is always in front of us?
Full programme of events at FIELDS, the main event website.
Includes the short film Because the Exchange is Complete, screened at three cinema screenings in Hexham, Newcastle and Lincoln, four online interactive artworks a detached touch, and various texts, drawings and responses that form part of a touring market exhibition and an on-site show at The Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) in 2021.
Sunday 8 August: Nuns Moor Park Bike Garden mini-market
Nuns Moor Park, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 5NU
10am - 2pm
Saturday 28 August: Louth Market
Cornmarket, Louth, LN11 9PD
9am - 4pm
Saturday 11 September: Beverley Market
Market Pl, Beverley, HU17 8EA
8am - 4pm
Saturday 25 September: Hexham Farmers Market
Market Pl, Hexham, NE46 1XQ
9am - 1pm
Saturday 16 October: Grainger Market
Grainger St, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 5QQ
9am - 4pm
Film screenings: Hexham Forum Cinema, Hexham (28 Sept), the Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle (21 Oct) and the Kinema in the Woods, Lincoln (18 Nov)
this project was supported by the FIELD project, funded by the Wellcome Trust. University partners: University of Lincoln, University of Edinburgh, University of Glasgow, Leeds Trinity University, University of Hull, Newcastle University
as tree
9th-17th October 2020
St. George's Hall, Tubbercurry, Co. Sligo
Three-person exhibition organised and curated by Shane Finan
An exhibition of artworks by three contemporary artists using place, contemporary media and nature, exhibited in the old schoolhouse, St. George's Hall, Tubbercurry, during Harvest Festival 2020. The exhibition is organised and curated by Finan and features artworks by UK-based artist Catriona Gallagher and Irish artist Tadhg Ó Cuirrín. Full details on the exhibition, including the booking platform and documentation, can be found here.
Supported by the Creative Ireland Sligo Programme (2018-2022).
In Áit
27th-29th June 2020
Farringdon's Gate, Lockstown, Co. Wicklow
Solo outdoor exhibition responding to COVID-19
A solo exhibition of paintings that were made within the 2km restricted travel limit near the artist's home in west Wicklow. The exhibition took place for the community in the area only, with a short opening event and locally sourced food served by Amy Bunce.
Arpillera Doll Exhibition
21st April 2020 - 31st July 2020
Roe Valley Arts Centre, Limavady, Derry, UK
1 piece in group exhibition
Created an arpillera doll in response to a call for these textile figures remembering the disappeared, as part of an exhibition created by Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre.
Over Nature
2019-2020
6 venues, Ireland & UK
Curated 6-person touring exhibition about perspectives on the Anthropocene
A group exhibition of artists curated by Valeria Ceregini. News and updates to be posted on this website (see below individual exhibitions).
Over Nature VI
26th September-21st November 2020
Luan Gallery, Athlone
Curated 6-person touring exhibition about perspectives on the Anthropocene
One artwork is featured in the sixth and final leg of Over Nature, a group exhibition of artists curated by Valeria Ceregini. This is a new artwork, debuting at this exhibiion. It is a combination of the paintings exhibited during COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, titled 'In Áit', and a documentary video of this event.
Over Nature V
8th August-5th September 2020
The Courthouse Gallery and Studios, Ennistymon, Co. Clare
Curated 6-person touring exhibition about perspectives on the Anthropocene
One artwork is featured in the fifth leg of Over Nature, a group exhibition of artists curated by Valeria Ceregini: the 2019 artwork 'The Repeated Refrains of Nature', from the series Solastalgia.
Over Nature IV
7th February-8th March 2020
Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny
Curated 6-person touring exhibition about perspectives on the Anthropocene
Two artworks were featured in the fourth leg of Over Nature, a group exhibition of artists curated by Valeria Ceregini. Artworks exhibited include a new artwork, reappropriation (2019-20), the fourth from the series Antikythera Etc. and the 2019 artwork 'The Repeated Refrains of Nature', from the series Solastalgia.
Over Nature III
14th November-21st December 2019
Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin
Curated 6-person touring exhibition about perspectives on the Anthropocene
One artwork was featured in the third leg of Over Nature, a group exhibition of artists curated by Valeria Ceregini. Artwork exhibited is faigh ar ais as an fharraige, made for exhibition in Rye Creative Centre in 2018, and part of the series Anitkythera, etc..
Over Nature II
17th-28th October 2019
TACTIC Visual Art Programme, St. Luke's Crypt, Cork
Curated 6-person touring exhibition about perspectives on the Anthropocene
Four artworks were exhibited at the second leg of Over Nature, a group exhibition of artists curated by Valeria Ceregini. Artworks exhibited included works from the 2011 series Floating Islands and the 2019 artwork 'The Repeated Refrains of Nature', from the series Solastalgia.
Over Nature I
8th-28th September 2019
Roe Valley Arts Centre, Limavady, Derry, UK
Curated 6-person touring exhibition about perspectives on the Anthropocene
Four artworks were exhibited at the first leg of Over Nature, a group exhibition of artists curated by Valeria Ceregini. Artworks exhibited included works from the 2011 series Floating Islands and 2012 series Hubbert's Peak.
The Repeated Refrains of Nature
June-August 2019
Zoological Museum, Trinity College Dublin
Solo installation of artwork about bird depopulation and technology
This artwork deals with bird depopulation and the idea of things that can be lost.
Artwork #2 from the series solastalgia.
Supported by Trinity College Dublin Visual and Performing Arts Fund
faigh ar ais ar an fharraige
March 2018
Rye Creative Centre, Rye, England
Solo exhibition of painting and digital media in Rye, England
This exhibition used local landscape history, and terminology from east Sussex relating to nature that has become seldom used.
Artwork #3 from the series antikythera etc.
Supported by Culture Ireland as part of GB18: Promoting Irish Arts in Britain
beyond the black stump
September 2017
Charlestown Arts Centre, Charlestown, Co. Mayo
Solo 3-day painting performance
Large, interactive painting performance over three days, inviting audience to participate in creating, and eventually destroying,
a narrative of 'the west' in a part of Ireland negatively affected by emigration.
Curated by Louise Spokes, the project was
based on an open call responding to the 1968 book
No One Shouted Stop by journalist John Healy, which documents the loss of community in the rural Irish town
of Charlestown in County Mayo in the 1960s.
Artwork #1 from the series solastalgia.
Supported by Culture Night Mayo 2017
A sudden and wonderful brightening
January-February 2017
Duncairn Centre for Culture and Arts, Belfast
Resident artists exhibition (5 artists), 1 installation
Large-scale interactive and mixed media installation built for resident's final exhibition
following 4-month residency at Digital Arts Studios, Belfast.
Artwork #2 from the series antikythera etc.
Winner of 2016 VAI @ DAS Studio Award
trinity college arts annual exhibition
April 2017
Temple Bar Gallery & Studios, Dublin
Group exhibition, 1 painting
Exhibition installation of the remaining pieces from the online
artwork ADA.
Divisions
October-December 2016
Twitter Exhibition
Solo online exhibition of digital collage
New works were posted to Twitter every other day, leaving a day for contemplation. The idea of digital
media as creating and removing barriers, and in particular the notion of barriers as arbitrary, were
influence for this exhibition.
Mugwort, Wormwood, and how little we know about the end of the world
April 26th, 2016
Wormwood Gate, Dublin
Solo Interactive Light Installation
In commemoration of the Chernobyl disaster, this piece was designed to consider location and
containment as abstract concepts. It was created as an outdoor installation with sculptural and
interactive digital elements.
Artwork #1 from the series antikythera etc.
Nothing Lasts Forever
December 2015-date
Online interactive artwork
Solo Interactive Web Artwork
Nothing Lasts Forever - this work challenges the idea of longevity and supposes that even in
digital media all things are ephemeral.
View online
ADA
November 2015
Wandelbar Art International, Gstaad/Bern, Switzerland
Solo Online Exhibition and project
ADA consists of a painting split into 96 pieces and sold through
an online platform as part of a project on distributed technology and communication.
Phase One Festival
April 2015
The Dock Arts Centre, Carrick-on-Shannon, Co. Leitrim
Invited artwork (5 artists), 1 installation
The interactive digital artwork My Friend Lucky was included as one of the art installations
for the Phase One Music and Art Festival at The Dock Arts Centre, Carrick-on-Shannon, Co. Leitrim.
The artwork showed a screen that imitated Artificial Intelligence, "speaking" to visitors and asking them to share
data with it, in a criticism of big data scraping platforms.
Phase One Festival
April 2014
The Dock Arts Centre, Carrick-on-Shannon, Co. Leitrim
Selected artwork in curated exhibition, 1 installation
The interactive digital projection Nowhen was selected as one of the art installations
for the Phase One Music and Art Festival at The Dock Arts Centre, Carrick-on-Shannon, Co. Leitrim.
The piece was built to function like sonar, creating an outline image of people in the room,
reflecting when sound was heard by the system.
Granby Park Arts programme
August-September 2013
Granby Park, Dublin
Selected artwork in curated exhibition, 1 installation
Two works were staged at the pop-up outdoor event by Upstart, Granby Park in Dublin, August-September 2013.
These included a text-based installation using video tape as a medium, Future Proof II,
and a digital installation, Dian-an-Odyssey that recorded and played back user stories.
Tetralogy
August 2013
Front Square, Trinity College, Dublin 2
4 collaborative pieces, MSc final project
Tetralogy was a series of digital art installations created in Trinity College Dublin's
Front Square as part of a final group progect for the MSc in Interactive Digital Media in the university.
The project included pieces that took audio, sensor and visual input and responded to people's interactions,
creating a narrative in the space that contrasted with the historical nature of it.
Collaborative works with Louise Noone and Gary McDermott.
Irish Wave III
May-August 2012
Hidden Meanings, Yan Chao Collection Gallery, Beijing & Instruments of
Pleasure, National Centre for the Performing Arts, Beijing
3 artworks selected for group exhibition
Included three digital works and a painting installation. The exhibitions were part of Irish Wave III,
an exhibition of Irish work in China, which also included venues in Shanghai.
Make The Eighties The Decade Of Endeavour
July 2012
KT Contemporary, Donnybrook, Dublin
5 pieces, three-person exhibition
Invited to participate in a three-person painting exhibition exploring the effects of political change
in Ireland in the last 30 years.
Painted Word
April 2012
Vermont Studio Center Exhibition Space, Johnson, Vermont, USA
2 pieces, three-person exhibition
Exhibited paintings as part of a three-person show at the end of a residency at Vermont
Studio Center, Vermont USA.
This OFFSET Space
March 2012
Little Green Street Gallery, Little Green Street, Dublin
2 pieces, group exhibition
Part of the 2012 OFFSET festival, two digital print collages were exhibited at the exhibition.
Where We're At
September 2011
Creative Campus, The Big Picture, Tallaght, Dublin
2 collaborative pieces, group exhibition
Invited to participate in 8-week Creative Campus art residency, where artists were asked to
use and reinterpret an abandoned digital hub in Tallaght town centre. Two collaborative digital
works were created with Sara Amido, Thom Conaty and David Collier that used touch-screen technology,
projection, audio and varied digital media to reinterpret the exhibition space and introduce elements
of Tallaght into this space.
Half and Half: Opposites
July 2011
Half and Half, Sullivan’s Quay, Cork
1 painting, group exhibition
Invited to participate in a group exhibition looking at the idea of halves. The exhibited piece was a
collaborative work with artist Candice Chu, looking at the idea of a self-portrait reinterpreted,
and at the idea of individual or unique painting styles.
Never Ending Skaga I and II
May-June 2011
Mjólkurbúðin, Akureyri, Iceland | Nes, Skagaströnd, Iceland
8 pieces, group exhibitions
Exhibited paintings and painting installations in two self-curated and organised exhibitions
in Akureyri, Iceland and Skagaströnd, Iceland. The exhibitions were responding to an art residency at
Nes, Skagaströnd, where the artists were invited to consider the idea of working on a peninsula.
Artmartists
September 2010
The ArtMart, The Mall, Sligo
2 pieces, group exhibition
Invited to exhibit as one of the founding members of The ArtMart Studios and Gallery in an exhibition
looking back at the beginnings of the artist-led space.
ArtCrawl 09
September 2009
Various venues, Sligo
6 pieces, group exhibition
Co-organised a large-scale group exhibition in numerous spaces, two of which later became semi-permanent
art spaces in Sligo.
Claremorris Open Exhibition
September 2008
Claremorris, Co. Mayo
2 pieces, group exhibition
Accepted into the Claremorris Open Exhibition, Claremorris, with two paintings, one of which sold locally.
The exhibition was curated by Lizzie Carey Thomas of TATE Britain.