Niamh Mairead
Cullen Dunphy
Through my practice, I explore suffering as an innate part of being, particularly through the lens of the female experience. I inquire into its potentially transformative qualities and how it gives definition to our joy and sense of meaning. I view the creative process as a means of metabolising our experiences and translating their essence into something external; an object, an act, an image. In this sense, I see the artist as a vessel and a translator, facilitating the most subtle information to come into form. My art practice is an expression of my own search for ways of being, and so my work often has an undertone of mystical and philosophical perspectives.
As an interdisciplinary artist, my concept dictates the medium I use, and so fuels a constant process of learning new ways of creating - always shifting out of my comfort zones. Recently, my practice has mostly consisted of sculpture, installation and text works.
Writing has been an especially key pillar of my practice. My appreciation for language is long standing, yet what I’m most excited by is the unsaid; the space in between words that is malleable and subjective. There is much to the human experience that exists beyond the limitations of language. In attempt to reach out to the undefinable, I play with these limitations and produce text works that often sit between poetry and storytelling.