shane finan
BA in Fine Art from IT Sligo 2008
MSc in Interactive Digital Media from Trinity College Dublin 2013
Certificate in High Impact Leadership, Irish Management Institute 2018
Certificate in Irish language, bonnleibhéal, TEG, University of Maynooth
Interactive digital media artist and project manager based in Ireland.
Project management experience include: European Manager, Gstaadfilm International Festival for Short Art Films (Switzerland, including tours to Ireland, UK, Uruguay, Brazil and Germany; 2014-date), Project Manager Projects: Slándáil (European Union FP7), FÍOSÍN (Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Fund) and Éadáil (Atlantic Bridge Proof of Principle Fund), Trinity College Dublin (Ireland, 2014-19).
Artworks explore contemporary theory on technology, place and more-than-human relationships.
Proud to be a member of Visual Artists Ireland, the representative body for artists in Ireland, and a constant source of support and information.
Supporter of federated, free and open source software:
Other social media:
Signatory of Culture Declares Emergency:
latest news
5th May 2021
Publication: The Master's Device
A publication in the Visual Artists Ireland News-sheet about open source media and the potential for technological critique by artists.
Artists … are known for challenging hegemonies, exploring environmental issues, … or voicing ethical concerns within their work. So, there is an unfortunate contradiction in using ethically, environmentally or socially unsound tools.
post citation, 2021
Available online from June 2021 at this link.
24th April 2021
New installation: we, the mycorrhizae
New artwork presented at VARC, Highgreen, to an audience of over 70 people across a day. Full documentation coming soon.
This piece invited attendees to come together to make place with one another. It was influenced by the tree planting at Kielderhead Wildwood Project.
Part of the programme ENTWINED: Rural Land Lives Art.
14th April 2021
New series: the opposite of an echo
Just released the first of a series of web-based artworks, named the opposite of an echo. Each piece in the series will feature images from tubes. The title of the first piece is the opposite of an echo
Updated April 19th - a second artwork in this series is now available online at this link. The second piece is called Allacam.
Part of the collaborative project about networks The Wood Wide Web in collaboration with VARC and Kielderhead Wildwood Project. All photos taken on-site in Kielder.
Part of the programme ENTWINED: Rural Land Lives Art.
31st March 2021
Residency: The Wood Wide Web
A one-month residency working on a project about networks (forest, community, technology) is now underway.
In collaboration with Kielderhead Wildwood Project, Northumberland Wildlife Trust, UK, where they are planting 39,000 trees over five years in Kielder, England, near the Scottish border.
Project page.
This is part of the residency programme ENTWINED: Rural Land Lives Art.
31st March 2021
Video Essay: Never Just a Tree #6 - Necessity: Community
The sixth video essay for the The Wood Wide Web project is now available online.
Each video includes a long-form blog-post outlining the research toward this video:
Shane Finan: Repairing The Chain.
This is part of the residency programme ENTWINED: Rural Land Lives Art.
21st March 2021
New Project Page: ]EXPOSURE[[ENCLOSURE]
A new project page to host all of the different writing and work that I have made as part of the FIELD project.
New web-based artworks from this project to appear soon.
1st March 2021
Article: Callous Caring: The myth of dichotomy in farming
A new blog post about the complex decisions that farmers make, as part of the FIELD project.
The article looks at the idea of dichotomy and how nuanced the relationship between farmer and animal is.
19th February 2021
Article: The artist who stares at sheep
A new blog post documenting my first encounters with sheep suffering from lameness as part of the FIELD project.
The article documents how I began to underatand the vulnerability of sheep suffering from lameness, and what the sheep are now teaching me about being human.
16th February 2021
Public talk: art-talks, University of Lincoln
A public talk organised by the MFA programme at the University of Lincoln, partners on the FIELD project
The talk will discuss my artistic practice and background, and the current ongoing projects about farms and fungi. Click the image for more information.
3rd February 2021
Online exhibition in progress
Working on new collaborative material with Michele Allen and Mark Jones for the FIELD project for an online exhibition, 2021-22.
Works are focussed on animal disease including lameness and BVD.
11th January 2021
Exhibition Residency: Leitrim Sculpture Centre (2021)
I have been awarded an exhibition residency at the Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Manorhamilton, Co. Leitrim, to work on an ongoing project about more-than-human entanglements and network theory. This will be broken across two months in 2021, and the exhibition will take place in September 2021.
30th November 2020
Book Chapter: We, the Mycorrhizae in Evolving the Forest (2020, art dot earth)
I have a chapter in the edited book Evolving the Forest that will be released on 14th of December is now in print. The book is published by art dot earth, and the chapter and book were edited by Richard Povall. The chapter deals with concepts of networks, and is an essay form article. The book is currently availble for order.
18th November 2020
Research: FIELD - Lameness and BVD
I have just completed two weeks of a research residency working with farmers in England, Scotland and Ireland, discussing lameness in sheep predomainantly, and also BVD in cattle, as part of my work with the FIELD Project, UK.
This research will form the basis for a new installation being built in early 2021.
30th October 2020
Video Essay: Never Just a Tree #5 - Necessity: Forests
The fifth video essay for the The Wood Wide Web project is now available online.
Each video includes a long-form blog-post outlining the research toward this video:
Shane Finan: Independent Interdependence.
This is part of the residency programme ENTWINED: Rural Land Lives Art.
29th October 2020
Installation: chthonic
An interactive installation about trees and networks, built and to be installed at a future exhibition.
Each video includes a long-form blog-post outlining the research toward this video:
Shane Finan: Independent Interdependence.
This installation was built for the exhibition as tree, funded by Creative Ireland (Sligo). It was the final work in the 5-year long series Antikythera, Etc.
latest exhibitions
open studio
VARC artists in residence Catriona Gallagher and Shane Finan showing work from the adventurous three-year programme ENTWINED. Rural. Land. Lives. Art. Shane will stage a new interactive performative installation.
as tree
october 2020 online (due to take place in St. George's Hall, Tubbercurry, Sligo)
Curated online exhibition (postponed offline exhibition) as tree, due to take place in Tubbercurry in 2021
over nature vi
september 26th-november 21st 2020 Luan Gallery, Athlone, Co. Westmeath (IE) - unfortunately closed early due to covid-19 lockdown restrictions
The sixth and final stage of the ongoing group exhibition Over Nature curated by Valeria Ceregini. Image of gallery courtesy of Wikimedia.
over nature v
august 7th-september 5th 2020 Courthouse Gallery, Ennistymon, Co. Clare (IE)
Part of the ongoing group exhibition Over Nature curated by Valeria Ceregini.
Photograph below credit: Mary O'Connor, artist.
in áit
june 24th-26th 2020, Lockstown, Wicklow (IE)
An exhibition of restricted paintings presented to neighbours and friends living in a close locale to celebrate the end of the COVID-19 restrictions
COVID-19 update
Postponements/cancellations
Exhibitions and events up to August 2020 are currently postponed or cancelled in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Any update will be posted here. Please stay home, stay safe.
over nature iv
Part of the ongoing group exhibition Over Nature curated by Valeria Ceregini.
Image below courtesy of Sammon chartered surveyors.
over nature iii
november 14th-December 21st 2019 Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin (IE)
Part of the ongoing group exhibition Over Nature curated by Valeria Ceregini.
over nature ii
Part of the ongoing group exhibition Over Nature curated by Valeria Ceregini.
over nature i
Part of the ongoing group exhibition Over Nature curated by Valeria Ceregini.
over nature touring exhibition
september 2019-june 2020; multiple venues
In 2019/2020, I will be one of the exhibiting artists in an upcoming exhibition about contemporary thoughts on nature and landscape, Over Nature, curated by Valeria Ceregini. The works that will feature in the exhibition will include interactive digital works and paintings on landscape and place. The exhibition will tour to five venues in the Republic of Ireland.
The venues that will be exhibiting the works are as follows:
- Over Nature #1, Sep 2019, Roe Valley Arts & Cultural Centre, Limavady (UK)
- Over Nature #2, Oct 2019, Sample-Studios, Cork (IE)
- Over Nature #3, Nov – Dec 2019, OPW – Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin (IE)
- Over Nature #4, Jan – Feb 2020, R.C.C. – Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny, Co Donegal (IE)
- Over Nature #5, Mar – Apr 2020, The Courthouse Gallery & Studios, Ennistymon, Co Clare (IE)
the repeated refrains of nature
june 25th-august 31st 2019; zoological museum, trinity college dublin
A new interactive video based artwork, the repeated refrains of nature, was exhibied in the Zoological Museum, Trinity College Dublin (June 26th-August 31st 2019). Based on nature writing including that of Rachel Carson and Robert MacFarlane, the piece is a response to the decline in bird species populations currently being observed internationally. The artwork is exhibited in the Auk Room, beside an exhibiton of extinct birds and animals that once called Ireland home.
This artwork is part of the series solastalgia.
More information