Siobhán McDonald is an Irish artist based in Dublin. In a practice that emphasizes field work and collaboration she works with natural materials, withdrawing them from their cycles of generation, growth and decay. This process gives form to a range of projects which consider our place on Earth in the context of geological time. Her work with glaciers and other natural phenomena deploys a unique artistic language that gives form to intangible and richly varied processes including painting, drawing, film and sound. McDonald has recently exhibited internationally at Ars Electronica (2022,) Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels (2022,) The Weisman Museum, USA (2023,) Centre for Contemporary Art LAZNIA (2022,) Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris, (2018) Deutsches Hygiene-Museum DHMD, (2020); Volta, Basel (2019); Limerick City Art Gallery, (2019); Deutsches Hygiene-Museum DHMD, (2019); The National Trust-Fox Talbot Museum, UK, (2018) among other Galleries and festivals. McDonald regularly collaborates with world-leading research facilities such as The European Space Agency (ESA), the JRC European Commission, BOZAR: Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, and Gluon Platform for Art, Science and Technology; and is Artist in Residence at the School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin (2023-2025.) Her research-based approach pursues knowledge to ask questions about the structure and history of the earth. She calls on notions of what is still unknown to science, exploring the Anthropocene and the recent consequences of our treatment of nature. Her work is represented in many collections, both public and private such as The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon, Allied Irish Banks, Bank of Ireland, The Ulster Museum and Trinity College Dublin.
About Siobhan McDonald
Articles with Siobhan McDonald
Passage
Siobhan McDonald’s multifaceted exhibition PASSAGE explores Dublin’s deep history as a mutable landscape shaped by water, cosmology, and human intervention. Through film, sound, painting, and sculpture, the exhibition investigates how the city’s shifting ground holds memory and resilience.
Floating Body
Siobhán McDonald is an Irish artist based in Dublin. In a practice that emphasizes field work and collaboration she works with natural materials, withdrawing them from their cycles of generation, growth and decay. Through painting, film, sound and sculpture McDonald explores Dublin Port as a gateway of exchange—reimagined as a porous space of interspecies cohabitation. This haunting journey along the wetland—located on the edges of the port—is a breathing, living system that is able to respond to sea level rise.
The Boglands are Breathing
Siobhán McDonald is an Irish artist based in Dublin. In a practice that emphasizes field work and collaboration she works with natural materials, withdrawing them from their cycles of generation, growth and decay. Her solo exhibition, ‘The Boglands are Breathing’, presents a new body of work that critically explores the role of boglands as both repositories of our past and guardians of our future. In a multifaceted body of work, Siobhán McDonald blends scientific and creative processes to make sculpture, video, works on paper, paintings and sound pieces.
The week the sun touched the earth
Siobhán McDonald’s practice draws attention to contemporary topics dealing with air, breath and atmospheric phenomena, weaving scientific knowledge into her art in a poetic and thoughtful manner. Siobhán is working with world-leading research facilities such as The European Space Agency (ESA) and The JRC European Commission to explore ecology in light of current ecological concerns. Across research labs, she pursues knowledge to ask questions about the structure and history of the earth. She calls on notions of what is still unknown to science, exploring the Anthropocene and the recent consequences of our treatment of nature. Her work with glaciers and other natural phenomena deploys a unique artistic language that gives form to intangible and richly varied processes including painting, drawing, film and sound.
Hidden Monuments
Siobhan McDonald is an award-winning Irish artist interested in the changeable nature of landmass, historical events and their interconnection to time. Her latest exhibition, titled ‘Hidden Monuments’, presents a series of artistic enquiries to remind us of the Cairns, standing stones and Megalithic structures that foreshadow our architectural histories.
Messages in Water
“Water takes a central place in my view of the world. It is the container of life and the connective element in the landscape.”
Siobhan McDonald is a visual artist working in the medium of paint, film and sound. She is interested in the changeable nature of landmass, historical events and their interconnection to time. Many of her works seek to merge the poetic and the scientific to delve into a field that’s unknown to her.
Crystalline
I am a Visual artist working in the medium of paint, film and sound. I am interested in the changeable nature of landmass, historical events and their interconnection to time. Many of my works seek to merge the poetic and the scientific to delve into a field that’s unknown to me. My current project ‘Crystalline,’ arises out of my ongoing inquiry into how humanity has become the dominant force of change on the planet. Positioning the work within geological history, this project explores our understanding of time and our relationship with a continually changing environment.