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PortfolioDeirdre O’Leary
Artist Statement:What inspires me is the accessibility of the world
through our senses and the various ways in which the body with its features and organs reflects its
surroundings. Within my practice, I have been investigating the relation of body, space, and language.
I work mainly with installation, text, and film and aspire to materialize playfulness while dematerializing
space through composition.
Index:To embody a fruit, 4
Ausgleich einer Zwei, 8Körperbilder, 11
Muschelkalkwagen, 15Puma, 18
Voliere (Listening to the eyesight), 2017, 20Mockingbird, 24
Beyond the Real, 26Accessories of Doubt, 30
Caméléon, 33Axiom J., 36
Die Vermessung einer Koerperlichkeit, 39Inventing an Interval on the 8th
of May 2014, 43°0'2N 41°0'1E, 42CV, 46
Contact, 47
4To embody a fruit
To embody a Fruit is a dialogue on contemplation and form. It is an Aquarell, a Textpiece and a Pinetree. The work relates to accumulation and perception.
2019 AQUARELL, TEXT, PINETREE, DYED CLOTH, OAK WOOD
PHOTOS: DEIRDRE O’LEARY
to embody a fruit
a plain towelyour elbow next to minewith pluto came a child
sitting on my lap.
8Ausgleich einer Zwei
“Ausgleich einer Zwei” is an instrument made out of Glass and Brass and is interacting with the environment.
IMAGE 12019
BRASS, GLASS PHOTO: DEIRDRE O’LEARY
IMAGE 2KÖRPERBILD I (THE TONGUE, THE BLUE AND THE TWINS), 2018
WOOL, SPACEPHOTO: MORITZ SCHERMBACH
11Körperbilder
The Körperbilder designs are based on body memory. My enthusiasm for weaving stems from my interest in handcrafts and writing. Weaving and language are etymologically allied.
IMAGE 1 + 2KÖRPERBILD I (THE TONGUE, THE BLUE AND THE TWINS), 2018
WOOL, SPACEPHOTO: MORITZ SCHERMBACH
IMAGE 3KÖRPERBILD II (SOLAR PLEXUS), 2018
WOOL, SPACEPHOTO: MORITZ SCHERMBACH
15Muschelkalkwagen
Skating through coloured clouds: a proces-sion begins and ends. The Muschelkalkwagen is both a floating stage and an instrument. The Muschelkalkwagen was designed for the annual Draisin derby in Dreispitz. This piece was conceived in collaboration with the curator Sandra Reimann at Museum Tinguely, Basel.
IMAGE 1 + 2MUSCHELKALKWAGEN, 2018
WOOD, MOTHER OF PEARL, COLORED SMOKE, MIXED MEDIADRAISIN DERBY, DREISPITZ, BASEL/MÜNCHENSTEIN
PHOTO: DANIEL SPEHR FOR CRISTOPH MERIAN STIFTUNG
18Puma
Puma was shot in Suchumi, the Kapital of Abkhazia in an abandoned park. The park was part of a research center dedicated to nuclear energy and weaponry.
2017SUPER 8 FILM, TRANSFERRED TO HD VIDEO
FILMSTILL
20Voliere
(Listening to the eyesight), 2017
The Installation Voliere (Listening to eyesight) employs the vocabulary of an aviary.In consists of a variety of circles formed out of brass, panels with woodprints, a fan palm, a coral and a polaroid. The palmleaf was, and still is understood in its emblematic form, as a symbol highlighting the equality of all living beings. I’ve been working in and with an aviary, that describes itself as a home for homeless parrots.
IMAGE 1VOLIERE (LISTENING TO EYESIGHT), 2017
INSTALLATION VIEW (DETAIL), CENTRE PASQUART, BIENNEPALMLEAF, WOODPRINT ON PANELS, CORAL, BRASS, PHOTOGRAPHY
PHOTO: SEBASTIEN VERDON
IMAGE 2 + 3VOLIERE (LISTENING TO EYESIGHT), 2017
INSTALLATION VIEWS, CENTRE PASQUART, BIENNEPALMLEAF, WOODPRINT ON PANELS, CORAL, BRASS, PHOTOGRAPHY
PHOTO: SEBASTIEN VERDON
24Mockingbird
Beso’s Grandmother caught a mockingbird. She kept it encaged in her livingroom, pierced it’s tongue, and taught it Georgian. This film is a portrait of a Mockingbird taken hostage in a small village, now abandoned having been destroyed during the Georgian War in 2008. Mockingbird was produced in collaboration with Nora Longatti and Till Wittwer.
MOCKINGBIRD, 2016INSTALLATION VIEW, POLICE STATION,
ZEMO NIKOZI, GEORGIA, 2016
26Beyond the Real
“Deirdre O’Leary’s objects are related, according to the artist, to language. Alongside her writing practice and the use of text in her works, she strives to comWpose artworks that are put together like phrases in a speech or poem where the syntax is at least as important as the individual words. Here she presents pieces assembled from ready-made elements such as fur gloves on a chain, or a baseball cap with its own built-in wind chime, confronting us with her own strange and poetic way of turning the ordinary into the surreal. A set of hand-blown glass sculptures, formed with her own breath, are containers of the whispered stories O’Leary filled them with. She provokes us to wonder what her ves-sels would say if only we set her words free.”
Elena Filipovic, Kunsthalle Basel
UNTITLED (TOUCH), 2016FROM THE COLLECTION: ACCESSORIES OF DOUBT
BRASS, FUR
BLUE SKY LIKE AN INKWELL, FILLED HALF WITH INK, HALF WITH MILK, 2016BRASS, GLASS
INSTALLATION VIEW OF BEYOND THE REAL, KUNSTHALLE BASEL, 2017PHOTO: PHILIPP HÄNGER
FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: BLUE SKY LIKE AN INKWELL, FILLED HALF WITH INK, HALF WITH MILK, 2016, BRASS, GLASS — STOLEN LIGHT, 2016, ENAMEL, GLASS — CATCHING FLYING BIRDS, WITH MY TONGUE, 2016,
GLASS, PLEXIGLASS, STONE — I USED TO WALK ACROSS THE GRASS-GREEN PLAIN OF MY BED, 2016, COPPER, GLASS — THE LOSS OF MENTOS, 2016, COPPER, GLASS
CATCHING FLYING BIRDS, WITH MY TONGUE, 2016, GLASS, PLEXIGLASS, STONE
30Accessories of Doubt
…
IMAGE 1, LEFTTHE DOUBT CAP, FROM THE COLLECTION:
ACCESSORIES OF DOUBT, 2016COTTON, GLASS
IMAGE 1, RIGHTTHE DOUBT BAG,
FROM THE COLLECTION:ACCESSORIES OF DOUBT, 2016
BRASS, STONE
IMAGE 2UNTITLED (TOUCH),
FROM THE COLLECTION: ACCESSORIES OF DOUBT, 2016
BRASS, FUR
INSTALLATION VIEWSKUNSTHALLE BASEL, 2017PHOTO: PHILIPP HÄNGER
33Caméléon
Caméléon is an Artist book, that was pro-duced in collaboration with Baptiste Gaillard in an edition of 150 copies. It was released in June 2016 at the art book fair I Never Read, Art Book Fair, Basel.
2016PAPER, SOFTCOVER
PHOTOS: DEIRDRE OLEARY
36Axiom J.
J. is a narrative figure and a provisional identity. She is shared, she is common, she is extensive.
MAY 2016 ACCOMPANYING TEXT FOR THE SOLO EXHIBITION AT GALERIE 3000, BERN
TRANSLATED FROM GERMAN
J. removes her sky-blue jacket and remains receptive beneath Tasmanian pines.
She contemplates the green and focuses on the cool lolling color.
Bumbling sounds drown the blossoms, the ear. A crystal vase is on the table.
There in a flyglass, the words replace themselves.
We seat ourselves on colorful chairs and put paper cups on the round tabletop.
Clattering casio clangs build plastic architecture.J. sucks on a mentos.
How agile things seem, how empty the air. The bumbling multiplies.
She caresses her fringeThe dress falls in smooth pleats; in the archaic
geometry of the surface.
PROVISIONAL IDENTITY, 2016OBJECT, BRASS, PHOTOGRAPHY
126 CM × 130 CM × 65 CM
39Die Vermessung einer
Koerperlichkeit
…
AN INSTALLATION IN CENTRE PASQUART, BIEL – BIENNE JUNE 2016
FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: DIE VERMESSUNG EINER KOERPERLICHKEIT, 2016, INSTALLATION, PLASTER — ATLAS, 2016, WALLPIECE, BRASS
ATLAS, 2016WALLPIECE
BRASS
42Inventing an Interval
on the 8th of May 2014, 43°0'2N 41°0'1E
This film was shot in Sukhumi, the capital of Abkhazia. The footage was shot in an old military Sanatorium, called MVO. MVO, built during the Soviet Union was a place of recovery for injured or mentally exhausted members of the army. The title Inventing an interval on the 8th of May 2014, 43°.0'2 N 41°.0'1 E suggests a precise location in time and space. The aesthetic of the image replies with a dissolving image. This film was shot during an artistic research project in the Southern Caucasus in collaboration with Art as Foundation, Zürich.
IMAGE 1 + 22014
SUPER 8 FILM, TRANSFERRED TO HD VIDEO
IMAGE 3INSTALLATION VIEW CONNECTING SPACES,
AUSSTELLUNGSRAUM KLINGENTAL,BASEL, 2014
PHOTO: NICK BEZMER
46CV
CONTACT
Deirdre O’LearyMuellheimerstrasse 1444057 [email protected]
Born in Fribourg Switzerland on the 24th of July 1989Living and working in Basel Switzerland.
EDUCATION
• June 2017 Master of Contemporary Arts Practice, HKB, Bern• 2014 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Academy of Art and Design,
FHNW, Basel, Switzerland.• 2011 – 2012 The Dresden Academy of Fine Arts,
Dresden, Germany• 2009 – 2010 Vorkurs, Schule für Gestaltung, Basel• 2008 Matura, Gymnasium Oberwil, Switzerland
NOMINATIONS
• Winner of the Atelier Mondial Grant, 2019• Residency at Citée des Arts,
Paris from July 2019 – January 2020• Participant at XXIV CSAV — Artists Research Laboratory,
Fondazione Antonio Ratti• Shortlisted for the Kunstkredit Prize from the city of Basel
in 2018• Listed in SIKART, Lexicon on art in Switzerland
EXHIBITIONS
2019• A Dog barking at a Tree, 11th of June – 15th of June, Basel
With: Eva Funk, Anka Helfertova, Karin Salathe
2018• Draisinnen rennen Dreispitz, Münchenstein/Basel,
in collaboration with Sandra Raimann and Museum Tinguely• There is no Point in being dramatic, Künstlerhaus Dortmund• Raumfahrt, Museum Langmatt, Baden, Exhibition with
Daniel Karrer and Micha Zweifel
2017• Pay Attention Motherfucker, Zabriskie Point, Geneva,
curated by Roxane Bovet• Fluid rings, Victoria Square Project, Athens,
curated by Maria Papadimitriou• Ping-Pong, Basel, curated by Sue Irion• Mind the Cap, Centre PasquArt, Biel – Bienne,
curated by Anselm Stalder• Nora Longatti, Till Wittwer, Lokal-Int, Biel – Bienne• Stingray Editions, Ausstellungsraum Klingental, Basel,
curated by Kambiz Shafei• Je trace le contour de mon ombre, juste pour déshabiller,
Urgent paradise, Lausanne
2016• All, Die Diele, Zürich, invited by Livio Baumgartner• Cantonale, Kunsthaus Langenthal,
curated by Clare Hofmann• Cantonale, Centre PasquArt, Bienne,
curated by Felicity Lunn• Beyond the Real, Kunsthalle Basel,
curated by Elena Filipovic• OFF-Line, Zemo Nikozi, Georgia,• Affaire, Centre PasquArt, Bienne, curated by Anselm Stalder • Wasserfest, Ausstellungsraum Klingental,
curated by Julia Wirxel• Solo Exhibition, Galerie 3000, Bern • Ritournelle, Carosserie, Basel, curated by Deuxpieces• Juno invites to Patterns of reconciliation, Kasko, Basel
2015• Videoförmig. Kasko, Basel cureted by VIA• Open Studio, RoundaboutLx, Lisbon, Portugal• Festival.Mov, La Filiature, Mulhouse, France• Global Super-8 Day, Haus für Elektronische Kunst,
Basel, Switzerland
2014• Connecting Spaces, Ausstellungsraum Klingental, Basel,
curated by Annina Zimmermann• Artachment, with Silas Heizmann and Baschi Pfefferli, Basel• Lebensversicherung, E-Werk, Freiburg,
curated by Marcel Oettrich and Yvonne Ziegler
• Crashing at the Neighbours, at Haus für elektronische Künste, Basel curated by Chus Martinez
• Atopie, Flatterschaft, Basel, curated by Lysann Koenig
PROJECTS
• Snehta, Residency, Athens, 2017• OFF-Line, Art research Program in Nikozi, Georgia,
at the demarcation line to South Ossetia, 2016• Caméléon, A Publication with Baptiste Gaillard, 2016• Horrible Things is a Videoclip for the Band
Combineharvester, 2015 • Residency at RoundaboutLx, Lisbon, 2015• Connecting Spaces, Art research Program in the southern
Caucasus, in Abkhazia and Georgia, 2014• Radio ARX Creative expression and media exposure for
the inmates of the prison Arxhof, Bubendorf, Switzerland• In collaboration with Daniela Brugger, Lea Kuhn,
Daniel Steiner and RadioX, Basel, Switzerland Realized in 2013
47Contact