- (opens in a new window)Click here to go to the STEP Through the Looking Glass exhibition website
- (opens in a new window)Click here for a short video of Lorna discussing her role as ISSF funded Conway Institute Artist in Residence
WHERE WERE YOU BEFORE RECEIVING THIS AWARD?
Having previously worked as an artist all may life, immediately before receiving this award I was studying full time in an undertgraduate degree programme in Cell and Molecular Biology. Having achieved a first class honour, I was then lucky enough to be offered this unique and exciting opportunity to work as Artist in Residence in the Conway Institute in UCD, a position that was available because of ISSF funding.
YOUR PROJECT IN LAY TERMS
The aim of this project was to facilitate mutual exchnage and collaboration between Conway Insitutute researchers and a practicing professional artist, with a view to exploring new and unexpected ways of communicating the work being undertaken in the Instutite. Work created arising from this residency programme will be exhibited in an art gallery setting at some point in the future. This twelve month project was divided into two discrete sections; the first, lasting three months, involved me, as Artist in Residence, talking with Conway Institute researchers about their specific research; with the second nine months being spent creating a body of work in direct response to these conversations. An exhibition of the work created “Reports and Findings,” was subsequently mounted by me in the Conway foyer after the residency had finished, so that researchers and the Conway community could see what had resulted from the programme. The work created was collaborative in nature, and represents the challenge of communicating science research. The added challenge of working to communicate remotely via zoom because of Covid-19 pandemic lockdown restrictions is referenced in the work. During the yearlong residency a Cabinet of Everyday Curiosities was present in the Conway foyer, initially containing beautifully arranged everyday items belonging to people from my family, which evolved over the course of the residency through a process of mutual exchange, to contain items belonging to researchers in the Conway Institute. This project highlighted our built in tendency towards storytelling, something that is fundamental to working as a researcher in science.
HOW HAS ISSF HELPED YOUR CAREER?
It is unusual to be an artist who also has a 1st class science degree, and it is not easy to find relevant opportunities where these two very different specific skill sets are both needed in equal part. In large part working in this field represents the building of a career path from first principles. This ISSF funded residency has profided me with an incredible opportunity, at an ideal time, to experience what it is like to work as an artist in a science research instutite. The experience I have gained could not have been more relevant, valuable and meaningful.
TANGIBLE OUTPUTS AS A RESULT OF RECEIVING THE AWARD
Being Artist in Residence in the Conway Institute, supported through ISSF funding provided me with a springboard from which to move successfully forward in my career. During the year of my residency with UCD Conway Institute I won the Golden Fleece Award, Ireland’s largest art prize. This is a highly prestigious and prized award. The judges were fascinated by the link between my art practice and the world of science, and the fact that I was actively working in the field of science was key to my winning the award. As a direct result of my experience and the output of my residency with the Conway Institute I secured a position as Artist in Residence with the UCD College of Science for a period of two years, from September 2021 – 2023. Finally, as part of my residency programme with Conway Institute, an application for Science Foundation Ireland Discover funding was prepared and submitted. Our funding application for a project entitled ‘(opens in a new window)STEP through the Looking Glass, Stories Told of Experimental Processes’ was successful. This will allow me to continue working with Conway during 2022 on creating a Travelling Cabinet of Conway Curiosities along with photographs of the researchers involved as well as conversations with me about the objects in the cabinets that speak of their research field, accessed via QR code. This work will be shown in five locations around Ireland during the latter half of 2022. ISSF funding of my 2020-2021 residency programme with Conway Institute was fundamental to my achieving all of the above successes.
WHAT DID THE AWARD MEAN TO YOU PERSONALLY?
The opportunity to access an artist in residence programme with a science research institute has been a game changer for me. Had this opportunity not been available to me, at just the right time, I think it is highly unlikely I would have found another similar opportunity. I suspect I would have found work as a research assistant in an academic lab instead, and would not have had the chance to use all my skills so ideally. This award allowed me to do the sort of job I would have dreamt up for myself, but would never have suspected might in fact actually exist. It has given me the confidence to continue working as an artist in science, and faith, based on feedback, that it is a worthwhile thing to do.