About
Furthering an investigation for my BA in Visual Arts on Sherkin Island, and my MA in Fine Art from the Crawford in Cork, I continue my considerations, using film and glass as a poetic means to explore concepts of memory and embodiment throughout the body of my work.
As a visual artist I enjoy exploring materials for each particular project. I have worked in stained glass for over twenty years, making private commissions, work for exhibitions and teaching classes and one day workshops. I enjoy the collaborative process of working with a client to create the artwork that they will be excited to have in their home for many years to come.
I am so honoured to have been invited to join the Board of the Glass Society of Ireland in January 2022.
Film and photography have always been great loves, I am fascinated and intrigued with capturing beautiful poignant moments that sometimes slip away quietly without being caught.
Through exploration I have found that in times of pain or trauma people often choose to remain silent, holding and carrying the pain inside our bodies. This is stored in a veiled nature, quite often a secret to ourselves. However, our bodies need to be heard, to release these secrets, but they do so in code, through body language, gestures and movement. This work explores the nature of these secret scriptures or secret sign language as we communicate with others, using ethnography as a methodology.
‘Push’ is a video piece I created, filming myself and my husband pushing/being pushed by each other for 2 hours. This film has been screened in film festivals around the world, winning Best Experimental Short Film Award 2019 at the Global India International Film Festival.
In my film ‘Archive’ 2017, I filmed the process of myself knitting a corset of wire to create an object replicating the painful chest constriction often experienced through bereavement. Hand movements and gestures taken from these films are used to create a series of multi-layered drawings. I present two of these drawings, facing each other, in conversation, accompanied by an audio piece of me performing a struggled uneven inhalation/gasp.
Education & Training
2017 Crawford College of Art and Design (CIT), Masters in Fine Art (Art & Process)
2012-16 Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), BA Visual Arts (First Class Honors)
2010 ‘Keeping Children Safe’ HSE, run by Offaly Arts Office
Awards
2022 Semi Finalist Paris Women Festival
2021 Winner Continental Film Awards 2021
2020 Accord Cine Fest July 2020
2019 Best Experimental Short Film Continental Film Awards
2019 Global India International Film Festival
2016 Longlisted for the RDS Visual Arts Award
2007 Awarded 50% Scheme from The Craft Council of Ireland
Film Screenings
2021 Continental Film Festival
2020 Accord Cine Festival
2019 March- Global India International Film Festival 2019
2018 December- The Inshort Film Festival 2018, Lagos, Nigeria.
2018 October – LA Film Festival Semi Finalist, Los Angeles, USA.
2018 September- Culture Night, Fastnet Film Center, Schull Cork
2018 September- WOFF, Depot, Lewes, Brighton, UK.
Exhibitions
2021 ‘A Breath of Fresh Air’ Collaborative Glass Quilt. Effe Due Murano, Venice, Italy
2021 ‘Telling of Grief Held’, Solo Exhibition, Blue House Gallery, Schull, West Cork.
2020 Blue House Gallery, Schull, West Cork
2015-21 ‘West Cork Creates’, Skibbereen, Cork. Artist Selected Exhibition.
2020/22 ‘Incognito’ Sol Art Gallery, Dublin
2019 Array Art Exhibition, Skibbereen, Cork.
2012-2020 Members Exhibition, Uillinn WCAC, Skibbereen, Cork.
2017 CIT Crawford College of Art and Design, MA, ‘Future Marginalia’ Cork
2016 DIT (BA Hons) ‘Uncover’ Uillinn, WCAC, Skibbereen, Cork.
2016 DIT (BA Hons) ‘Uncover’ (Graduation Show), Sherkin Island, Cork.
2015 Array19, Skibbereen, Cork.
2011/2012 Whyte’s Book Shop, Cork
2010 The Schull Gallery, Cork. Deirdre Buckley Cairns & Lorraine Bacchus.
2009-14 Solo Exhibition The Painter’s Palette Gallery, Moycullen, Galway.
2008/10/11/12 The Blueberry Gallery, Limerick. Artist Selected Exhibition.
2008-12 Deirdre founded the ‘Offaly Artists Project’, where artists came together to support each other and exhibit together. We had four exhibitions a year which Deirdre curated.
Board Member of Glass Society of Ireland https://www.glasssocietyofireland.ie/
Registered Member of the Design & Crafts Council of Ireland https://www.dcci.ie/
