Gemma Kearney

Gemma Kearney’s (b. 1984, Ireland) work attempts to look at aspects of materiality, agency and notions of the performative object, whilst utilising socio-historical narratives and personal events. Through this reconstruction of meaning, she hopes that the result will be an ideological critique of the hierarchical nature of material, culture and society. The work is characterised by a spirit of material and symbolic engagement and a desire to understand and develop a practice conceived through positive conceptions of action, indeterminacy and futurity.

Thee works presented are a group of seemingly disparate, staged, performative devices. Contained within these works are references of sculptural tropes such as the plaster figures of classicism, anthropomorphisms and abstractions. There is a focus on the material gesture of the physical action of construction. The objects playfully misbehave and attempt to express a confrontational character through small acts of non-compliance or delineation of their sculptural form. Colour and humour are nestled amongst the more macabre elements of the works.

Gemma graduated from LASALLE College of the Arts with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art, First Class Honours in 2008 and then in 2018 with an MA in Fine Art. She won the Winston Oh Postgraduate Research Award and Winston Oh Travelogue Research Award in 2017 and is a LASALLE College of the Arts Scholarship Recipient (2017).