Siobhán McDonald
My work up until now has been concerned with the fundamentals of place and landscape. Using lens based reference material I transpose the images into studies on place and human experience.
Recently I have begun to include the structural elements of walls, grids and deserted sites in my paintings. They act as territorial markers and stand as witness to the passage of time. They become a record of civilization in its various stages of flux and unrest.
On a recent trip to the island of Montserrat in the West Indies, I studied the volcano know as Mount Chance. As part of my research I worked in the Observatory with the scientists where the ground movements of the earthquake are recorded in the field by seismometers sited around the volcano. The stations are powered by batteries, which are augmented by solar energy. The signals from the stations are also recorded on paper and give the scientists an immediate view of the current seismic activity. I began to see it as a form of mapping, which has become part of my recent work. The layers of line and latitude create a visual score, which maps the vibration of the earth’s signals.
This has lead me to employ the structure of layering and methodologies of maps and seismographs into my work. I have been researching notions of electric and magnetic fields in all living creatures. I am especially interested in how all living creatures and matter respond to vibrational messages. This brings up the question of how fish in shoals can change direction so swiftly and so remarkable in unison. We have all seen those spectacular underwater shots of shoal movements. Was it their sensitivity to electric or magnetic fields? The same question is posed at how flocks of birds can wheel in such amazing synchrony.
