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 2021https://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/





CV ʕ•́ᴥ•̀ʔっ♡


EDUCATION

Edinburgh College of Art at the University of Edinburgh (2017 – 2020)
Intermedia Art BA (Hons): First-Class Honours
Leeds Arts University (2015 – 2016)
Foundation Diploma in Art & Design: Distinction grade


EXHIBITIONS

Vava Art Collective presents: CLASH vol. 1, Southblock Gallery, Glasgow (15th – 23rd March 2019)
JUICE, Granton Walled Garden, Edinburgh (6th April 2019)
Trading Zone 2019, Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh (25th May – 22nd June 2019)
Between the Sheets, Whitespace Gallery, Edinburgh (1st – 3rd November 2019)
Playzone 2019, Edinburgh Corn Exchange, Edinburgh (22nd – 24th November 2019)
FutureLab, West Bund Art Centre, Shanghai, China (25th November – 1st December 2019)
Intermedia Film Collective Live Screening [Online] (29th April 2020)
Field Test, Silvermines Mountains, Tipperary Ireland (19th – 20th May 2020)
Are You Still Watching? [Online] (22nd June – 13th July 2020)
ALT-D [Online] (Ongoing)
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)
Wretched Light Industry [Online] (Ongoing)
Final, not Over – again, Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop (3rd – 7th June 2021)
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)
17th Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival, Berwick-upon-Tweed (10th – 12th September 2021)
17th Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival [Online] (13th – 30th September 2021)
RSA New Contemporaries 2021/22, The Royal Scottish Academy, The Mound, Edinburgh (26th February – 3rd April 2022)
56th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic (1st – 9th July 2022)
Nowe Horyzonty Film Festival, Wroclaw and [Online] (21st – 31st July 2022)
Queer Lisboa, Lisbon (16th – 24th September 2022)
25 FPS 18th International Experimental Film & Video Festival, Zagreb (21st – 24th September 2022)
Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival: MANIFEST, Edinburgh College of Art (29th September 2022)
aemi @ GAZE: Making & Unmaking, Light House Cinema, Dublin (2nd October 2022)
Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival, Bucharest (27th September – 2nd October 2022)
Festival du Noveau Cinéma, 51e édition, Montreal (5th – 16th October 2022)
Intersección Contemporary Audiovisual Art Festival, A Coruña (18th – 23rd October 2023)
Beijing International Short Film Festival, Beijing (18th – 28th November 2022)


RESIDENCIES

New Contemporaries Instagram takeover [Online] (8th – 12th December 2020)
Hospitalfield Graduate Programme 2021 [Online] (Ongoing)
Market Gallery Collaborative Residency 2021 (6th September– 15th October 2021)
CCA Londonderry digital residency [Online] (25th– 31st October 2021)
Hospitalfield Graduate Programme 2021 [Physical Residency Period] (28th March – 12th April 2022)
CCA Glasgow Creative Lab Residency 2022


AWARDS

Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2020 selected artists
Friends of the University of Edinburgh Visual Art Award 2020
RSA New Contemporaries 2021 selected artists
Circa Class of 2020 selected artists
i-D and ARTSTHREAD Global Design Graduate Show 2020 shortlisted artists
Visual Artist and Craft Maker Awards Bursary 2020/21
Eaton Fund Award 2021
Agility Award 2021, the Arts Council of Ireland
17th Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival New Cinema Award
Donegal County Council Artists Bursaries Scheme 2021
RSA Stuart Prize 2022
Agility Award 2022, the Arts Council of Ireland

MAV Award, INTERSECCIÓN – Contemporary Audiovisual Art Festival 2022


Agilit 
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CONTACT US (❁´◡`❁)

email: eimearandcat@outlook.com
instagram: @catandeimearmcclay