Burren College of Art - Exhibition

Topics: Art and Design

Sources: Burren College of Art

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Burren College of Art - Exhibition

(is)land

ma degree exhibition

dia thomas
aster reem david
brandon lomax

august 18-september 9 | 2022
opening reception | thursday | august 18 | 6-8pm
opening remarks by maeve stone

Burren College of Art invites you to join us on Thursday, August 18^th, to celebrate the final work of three MA students: Aster Reem David, Dia Thomas and Brandon Lomax – at the opening reception of their degree exhibition, (is)land. Opening remarks will be given by Irish director/writer, Maeve Stone.

(is)land is a collaboration among three multidisciplinary artists, examining themes of transcendence and transfiguration through artistic expression. Employing ideas of compassion across a spectrum of ecologies, the collective works explore the human experience within an environment.

Installed as individual parts of a greater whole, (is)land reimagines the traditional gallery space as an archipelago of sorts—a deteriorating bridge between the mainland and satellite land masses, between the mainstream and the individual. The installed works function much like an ecosystem, with each part contributing to a collective whole. Cultural, biological, phenomenological, or otherwise, the exhibition highlights the interconnective tissue between humans, non-humans, and everything.

Each artists’ distinct interpretations take viewers on a journey to reimagine the cosmos from the subatomic to the infinite. The works reference the higher self as an integral player in the survival of our species, magnifying and distorting scale in order to consider multiple perspectives in one experience. The result is a shared intellectual ecosystem of inclusion, empathy, and awareness to which all are welcome.

The works on view span a broad range of interdisciplinary practices, including digital media, film, sculpture, photography, print, performance, and installation.

For more information, please visit our website here: www.burrencollege.ie/island

About the Artists

Dia Mariam Thomas is a multidisciplinary artist from India, currently pursuing her masters in Studio arts at the Burren college of Arts, Ballyvaughan, Ireland. Her work focuses on the human experience, the challenges and trials of being a women. At the core, her work aims to dismantle archaic laws and silencing cultures, drawing on her experiences and stories from India. Dia’s ode to women, set against patriarchal and colonial backdrops urges one into deep thought about how cultural systems, histories, attitudes and laws suppress and trivialise women.

Aster Reem David (b. 1988, Pakistan) is a multidisciplinary artist working with photography, printmaking, installation, and mixed media. Her research centres on the themes of landscape and ecology emphasising human and more-than-human relationships. Aster’s studio practice is rooted in layers of experimental processes that reflect and collaborate with the natural world. She received her BA in Photographic Arts from the University of Westminster, London. Aster is currently based in west Ireland studying a master’s programme in Art & Ecology with a research and studio focus on Queer Ecology.

Brandon Lomax is a sculptor and installation artist whose immersive experiences transport viewers through time and space, and back into themselves. His work is process-driven, informed by ecology and artifact and rooted in anthropological study.

Lomax’s site-specific public exhibitions punctuate time by encapsulating history into the rhythm of natural, daily cycles. He engages with ideas of logic, inequality and empathy, and strives to remind participants of their place within the cosmos and beyond.

Lomax has exhibited with galleries, art fairs and Institutions in the US and internationally. His work is held in numerous private and institutional collections, including The Bunker in West Palm Beach, FL and the California Botanic Garden in Claremont, CA. He currently resides on the West Coast of Ireland, where he is studying the formations, flora and fauna of the glaciated karst landscape of the Burren.