About
Aoife Claffey is a visual artist, living and working in Cork City, Ireland. Her work explores human sensory perception in provisional spaces and creates installations combining film, printmaking and sound. Her work is influenced by her interest in both, material culture and the physical exploration of non- spaces. Physiological and psychological tensions between chaos and order are encouraged both during the making, and within the work, to evoke uncanny effect or altered cognitive states.
She received a First Class Honours in her MA in Art and Process in 2020 and a First Class Honours BA in Fine Art in 2019 from CIT Crawford College of Art and Design. After her Degree show she was awarded six awards and three residencies, leading to a number of exhibitions and opportunities. She is a member of the Sample Studios and Cork Printmakers. Selected exhibitions include Cahoots: The Space Between
2020/2021 a digital exhibition with selected artists from Galway, Dublin and Cork, Sample Studios, Cork Printmakers, and internationally at PRINT.ED #5, Espai Cultural Eina, Barcelona.
Her work is in the collection of Eli Lilly and has been featured in Bloomers Magazine #07: Emerging Female Artists. She is part of a newly formed artist collective ‘Inter_Site’ with upcoming exhibitions in the Marina Market, Cork City and ‘Oileán’ on Spike Island for Cork Harbour Festival (2021). A recent solo show includes 8 in Cork Airport terminal (2021)
Artist Statement
My work is influenced by my interest in material culture and the physical exploration of space. Physiological and psychological tensions between chaos and order are encouraged both during the making, and within the work, to evoke uncanny effect or altered cognitive states.
Using translucent layers of imagery and sound, I create immersive environments that transform unexpectedly each time the work is encountered. By manipulating these properties, I aim to provide an ambiguous space for the viewer to recall the peripheral, a space that’s in the midst of a constant, perpetual transformation;
a non-space.
During the process of making, I often allow activity to go beyond my control. Physiological and psychological tensions between chaos and order are encouraged both during the making, and within the work, to evoke uncanny effects or altered cognitive states. Using projection, found objects, printmaking and surround sound as agents for political and social change, my work encompasses notions of unpredictability, fragility and movement.