HOLY BLOOD// WIP (2021)


Still from 3D-modelled animation, A mother’s love for her baby (2021).

SYNOPSIS/DESCRIPTION

Using a combination of text, 3D animation, 3D modelling and 3D printing, this project explores the corrupt network of social institutions — Magdalene Laundries, mother and baby homes, etc. — run by the Catholic church in Ireland throughout the 20th century. 

EXHIBITIONS/ASSOCIATED RESIDENCIES

❁ Market Gallery Collaborative Residency 2021 (6th September– 15th October 2021)
❁ CCA Londonderry digital residency [Online] (25th– 31st October 2021)

LINKS 

Market Gallery Residency: https://www.marketgallery.org/collaborative-residency-cat-mcclay-and-eimear-mcclay/
CCA Derry~Londonderry Residency: https://www.ccadld.org/news/holy-blood-by-c%C3%A1itr%C3%ADona-and-%C3%A9imear-mcclay
The Skinny Interview: https://www.theskinny.co.uk/art/interviews/cat-and-eimear-mcclay-market-gallery
The Skinny Oct 2021 (issuu): https://issuu.com/theskinny/docs/issue_189_october_2

I GUESS I NEED YOU BABY (2021)

Still from 3D-modelled animation, I Guess I Need You Baby (2021).

SYNOPSIS/DESCRIPTION

I guess I need you baby is a 3D-animated video structured around a queer reinterpretation of Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid. Through this subversion of a popular fairy tale text, the conservative morality imposed by fairy tales is criticised, opening a space for alternative political imaginings. This approach supports a critical analysis of how popular culture both reflects and influences society, with a specific focus on how heterocentric media alienates LGBTQI+ people who do not identify with its traditional characters or narratives.

EXHIBITIONS

❁ They Had 4 Years 2021, GENERATORprojects, Dundee (22nd May – 13th June 2021)
❁ GZL x GAMIS Local Shorts, Bat. Lab. outdoor cinema, Glasgow (11th August 2021)

LINKS

They Had 4 Years 2021: https://www.generatorprojects.co.uk/projects/they-had-four-years

A BODY IS A BODY IS A BODY (2021)


Still from 3D-ma body is a body is a body (2021).

SYNOPSIS/DESCRIPTION

A body is a body is a body centres around a written text combining personal memories of a queer sexual experience with Catholic prayers and eschatological imagery. The text appears in the form of subtitles over a 3D-modelled animation, which features a mixture of iconographic and iconoclastic imagery associated with Catholicism. Through this work, we explore the historically fraught relationship between queerness and the Catholic church.

Conceptually, A body is a body is a body focuses on the cultural, social and political influence of the Catholic church, particularly in Ireland. Through this study, it questions the persistent link between the Irish state and the church. This is reinforced by an exploration of the potentiality of magic and witchcraft as queer and anti-capitalist symbols of resistance, through which it imagines a futurity predicated on a radical break from the dominant logic of late capitalism. The work harnesses eschatological imagery (disastrous weather, fire, etc.) to invoke the idea of end times associated with capitalism, and attendant premonitions of catastrophic or redemptive futures.

EXHIBITIONS

❁ 17th Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival, Berwick-upon-Tweed (10th – 12th September 2021)
❁ 17th Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival [Online] (13th – 30th September 2021)

LINKS

17th Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival 2021: https://bfmaf.org/program/a-body-is-a-body-is-a-body/
Irish Artists Film Index: https://irishartistsfilmindex.ie/works/a-body-is-a-body-is-a-body
Oyster Films: https://www.oyster-films.info/a-body-is-a-body-is-a-body

QUEER USE (2020)


Still from photographic animation, Queer Use (2020).

SYNOPSIS/DESCRIPTION

Queer Use is a short animation based on a text of the same name by Sara Ahmed, which focuses on the refusal of queer people to conform to heteronormative expectations regarding reproduction under capitalism. Through editing and collaging together photos of our bodies into pieces of furniture within bizarre domestic scenes, we explore the discomfort often suffered by queer people whilst navigating spaces that have not been established to accommodate them.

EXHIBITIONS

❁ Circa, Class of 2020, Piccadilly Circus (2nd August 2020)
❁ Circa, Class of 2020 [Online] (August 2020)
❁ Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2020 Digital Platform [Online] (Ongoing)
❁ Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2020, South London Gallery, London (19th May – 6th June 2021)

LINKS

Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2020: https://www.newcontemporaries.org.uk/2020/artists/cat-mcclay-and-%C3%89im%C3%A9ar-mcclay
Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2020 Digital Platform: https://bnc2020.newcontemporaries.org.uk/artists/cat-mcclay-and-eimear-mcclay/