Awarded the RDS Mason Hayes & Curran LLP Centre Culturel Irlandais Residency Award (value €8,000)
Waterford artist, Fionn graduated from MTU Crawford College of Art and Design in 2024. He works primarily with sculpture and uses video and sound to support this practice. His work considers our relationship with the landscape by addressing and reinterpreting references to Irish folklore and ancient Irish megalithic forms, such as stone circles. Working primarily with ancient bog oak - a material that would have been alive in the landscape during the construction of these ancient sites - his sculptures draw on the symbolism of the circle and the Sacred Oak Tree, often referred to in Irish mythology.
During the Spring equinox in 2024, Fionn brought his bog oak sculpture, Ciorcal na nDéise, back to its original homeland in county Waterford and installed it in the Comeragh mountains for five days and nights. The journey became a vital role in the story of the work. With his father Finbarr Timmins, Fionn carried the sculpture across the mountain to a site which would align with the sunrise. The artist stayed with his work for the entire duration attending to the atmospheric changes, and the sounds and smells of the landscape around him. This durational performance, and the film and sound work that resulted, aimed to foster a deeper sense of connection with landscape and with Ireland's ancient past.
Fionn’s research is informed by the writings of late Irish philosopher John Moriarty who drew his inspiration from the landscape, and the recent work of Irish writer and documentary maker Manchán Magan, who proposes mythology as an important knowledge formation, one that can offer a deeper insight into our environment.
Commenting on Fionn’s work, the 2024 RDS VAA judging panel said;
“Fionn’s work is wonderfully ambitious in its mature materiality sensibility. It deals with concepts of time is a beautiful love letter to the Irish landscape.
Image: Fionn Timmins, Ciorcal na nDéise, Image courtesy of the artist.
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