McCaughey’s practice explores thematic threads surrounding the body, identity and place, using symbols and metaphors that best express personal narratives. Watery hybrids, drowning dames, flailing females, peace offerings, magnetic moons, brain fog on the horizons and empathic monsters emerge in the work.
McCaughey’s work is continually evolving through research, studio-based experimentation and current reflections on the body through lived experiences of endometriosis, infertility and menopause, out of which her conceptual concerns take shape. Looking at feminist phenomenology of art and form, this work is a personal attempt to express what it is to live in a female body. In the manifestation of this rich and strange world, the ‘woman’ arises in connection with female identity as she takes on multiple forms, as a mermaid, siren, bird, monster and negotiates the boundaries between mortal/divine, Christian/pagan, artificial and biological. Questioning the representation and construction of female social identity.
This work takes conceptual and aesthetic cues from the perpetually shifting coastal environment of Rossnowlagh in Donegal. Recording climatic occurrences while roaming, listening, and mapping, the materiality of the work has been informed by gathering observations from naturally occurring forms, textures, colour, hues, tones, and light. The paintings, sculptures and installations embody the agency of the environment and memories of place past and present.
Throughout the making process, the artist has been in correspondence with poet Jill Kenny, sharing knowledge, myths, memories and personal narratives. Eleanor and Jill crossed paths on residency at Tyrone Guthrie Centre in 2023 and found common ground through lived experiences of sickness and healing. Jill Kenny was commissioned to write a piece for A Sea Change, into something rich and strange.
Artist Bio
Eleanor McCaughey’s work is developing through research, experimentation and personal healing, through a multifarious practice that includes installation, painting, sculpture, video, and sound.
Born in Dublin, Ireland. McCaughey studied at TU, Dublin. Selected exhibitions include; Whispers of rhythm balance on my hands, Draiocht, Dublin, 2024, Swallowing Mist to Lick Your Mouth, Margate, UK, 2023, Forget Your Cares, Sow Your Wild Oats, sin is a Wonderful Disease, Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin, 2023, Bones in the Attic, Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin, 2022, Super Market Art Fair, Stockholm, 2021, Vignettes, Richard Heller Gallery, LA USA, 2019.
Eleanor McCaughey is a recipient of the Fingal County Council Bursary 2020-24, Arts Council Ireland Bursary Award 2020-23, RHA Residency Award 2022, The Temple Bar Project Award 2021, and the Next Generation Award 2018. Her work is represented in the OPW, Arts Council Ireland art collection, and private collections nationally and internationally.
Image:01. Eleanor McCaughey, Many hands make light work, 2024, Oil, crayon and gouache on Fabriano paper, 70 x 100cm, Image courtesy of the artist.
02. Eleanor McCaughey, Many hands make light work (detail), 2024, Oil, crayon and gouache on Fabriano paper, 70 x 100cm, Image courtesy of the artist.
03. Eleanor McCaughey, Give us peace and repair, a myriad of parts, 2024, Oil, crayon and gouache on Fabriano paper, 70 x 100cm, Image courtesy of the artist.
04. Eleanor McCaughey, Skin deep, 2024, Oil, crayon and gouache on Fabriano paper, 70 x 100cm, Image courtesy of the artist.
www.eleanormccaughey.net #seachange
