Ultraviolet Art Talks Season 13 EP02 Aoife McCloughlin

On this episode, Caren Sullivan talks to artist Aoife McCloughlin in 2022.

McCloughlin’s practice is concerned with the materiality of public space. She engages in the act of 'gleaning', drawing from everyday material configurations which often get overlooked. To glean is to gather excess material from disparate sources.

Influenced by filmmaker Agnès Varda’s documentary ‘The Gleaners and I’ (2000), which explores the act in urban and rural settings, Mc Cloughlin feels compelled to appropriate abandoned objects. Beginning with photographing found objects in their respective locations, she attempts to understand the objects’ economies of use and the patterns of these material arrangements. 

No longer fulfilling their intended function, the objects found in their dislocated states lend themselves to reimagining. Through material manipulation, the utility of the objects is subverted by pushing the limitations of the object’s form. Ultimately the work aims to raise awareness around the circulation of mass-produced materials and how they embody the marks we leave as humans.

Aoife McCloughlin has recently joined Provost's Curatorial Fellow at The Douglas Hyde in Ireland (April 2025).

Follow Ultraviolet Art Talks on Instagram @_ultravioletarttalks_

For more information, follow The Douglas Hyde gallery on Instagram @dhg_dublin

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