Round 5: An Experimental Film Special
Hosted by: Senan O'Connor
February 18th 2024
Dervla Baker
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Dervla Baker is an accomplished artist, filmmaker, and photographer based in Cork City. Last year she attained an MA in Film and Screen Media from University College Cork, adding to her distinguished qualifications in Fine Art and Photography from Crawford College of Art and Design. Her creative journey has always been characterized by a dedication to storytelling and visual expression.
Recently, Dervla has distinguished herself with a series of projects that underscore her commitment to exploring pressing environmental issues and collaborating with fellow artists and local communities. Notable works include "field" (2023), a self-reflexive documentary addressing local environmental concerns, and "Arboreal" (2023), an experimental short delving into global deforestation using contemporary newsreel and drone footage. Additionally, she has collaborated with dance artist and choreographer Siobhán Ní Dhunnín on "Gearrscannáin," a series of artistic portrait films, including the recently released "Rincí Ros a Mhíl" (2023) in collaboration with established choreographer and film-maker, Ríonach Ní Neíll.
Dervla's creative practice seamlessly blends fine art photography and film, often engaging with socially relevant topics and community participation. "Pictúir Portach" (2023) exemplifies this approach, exploring the connection between the people of Carraroe, Connemara and their native boglands through portraiture and landscape photography, also in collaboration with Siobhán and Ríonach. The resulting exhibition, "Gabháil Mhóna," ran from May to July 2023 at Ionad Cultúrtha an Phiarsaigh in Ros Muc, Connemara.
Other notable exhibitions include "Holding – The Lismore Photo Project" at St. Carthage Hall (2022), an artist-led community residency that created a photographic archive for Lismore, Co.Waterford, in collaboration with Lismore castle Arts; and participation in "Stories from Lismore and Beyond" at Lismore Castle Arts (2020), and "The Parted Veil: Commemoration in Photographic Practices" at The Glucksman Gallery, UCC (2019).
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Aoife Desmond
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Aoife Desmond makes performance, film and visual art for gallery, cinema, theatre and off-site locations. She prioritises embodied knowledge and explores materiality, site and human/non- human relationships. She works in response to environmental crisis and rupture with an emphasis on restorative practices. Based in Cork, Aoife works locally, nationally and internationally both on solo and collaborative projects. She has made two feature length films Bury Our Hearts At The Bend Of The River and Mná & Sons. She has made numerous short films which have screened in festivals and galleries internationally.
Natasha Bourke
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Natasha Bourke is an experimental filmmaker and interdisciplinary artist, of Irish/Dutch descent. Her practice embraces film, photography, expanded cinema, installation, archive, drawing, performance & sound. Her interest in film evolved from a love of the lens, light and movement, rooted in her extensive dance background. Bourke is an Arts Council 2020 Next Generation artist and has presented work, solo and collaboratively, at numerous events across Ireland/Europe. The artist’s life/roots often underpin the work to contemplate existential, scientific and esoteric themes with humorous, dark and dreamlike poetism. Bourke continually refines the strands of her practice and poetic language, whilst maintaining an open process.Since 2014, Bourke has created a body of live/filmic works with Coneface, an absurd performance alter ego, including Rubblebubble at IndieCork 2019 and her first feature, Concrete Keys, which had a sell out premiere at Cork International Film Festival 2022. She has since been invited to screen this work at the Experimental Dance Music Film Festival 2023, Irish Film Institute, Sirius Arts Centre, Midleton Arts Festival and Phantascope, Triskel, Cork.
Water-based work has become integral to Bourke’s ongoing inquiry using different spatial modalities to explore physical and psychological states of suspension. She devised T.U.G! Litter Womb in a derelict sea bath in Dublin for Kirkos Ensemble’s 2020 Biosphere and on a 40-foot currach on Lough Foyle in Derry for Echo Echo 2021. Natasha is developing an ambitious multidisciplinary swimming pool-based performance vision, Kilter, Matter and Ghosts, which, pending funding, she hopes to premiere in 2024. As part of research for this work, she trained as a Yoga NAAD practitioner. Bourke is also researching towards 2 new short films, one of which is supported by the Sirius Arts Centre.
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