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
Shane is an 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 transience. Recent exhibitions include: Over Nature, six venues (Ireland & UK) curated by Valeria Ceregini (2019-20); The Repeated Refrains of Nature, Trinity College Dublin (2019) and faigh ar ais as an fharraige, Rye Creative Centre, UK (2018).
Proud to be a member of Visual Artists Ireland, the representative body for artists in Ireland, and a constant source of support and information.
Active supporter of open source projects:
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latest news
23rd March 2020
Video Essay: Never Just a Tree #1 - Introduction
The first video essay for the potponed residency, The Wood Wide Web is now available online.
This is accompanied by a long-form blog-post outlining the research to date on the project:
Shane Finan: The Wood Wide Web.
This is part of the residency programme ENTWINED: Rural Land Lives Art.
23rd March 2020
New Exhibition: As Tree
I have been selected to manage a new exhibition to be staged in Sligo, As Tree featuring three artists working with new media technologies and themes based on nature. The exhibition will take place in St. George's Hall, Tubbercurry, in October 2020. More details to follow.
Supported by Sligo Arts Office and funded by Creative Sligo as part of the Creative Ireland programme 2017-22.
23rd March 2020
Postponements: COVID-19
Planned residency with Kielderhead Wildwood Project and Visual Arts in Rural Communities is postponed - new scheduled date to be posted here in the coming weeks.
16th March 2020
Postponements: COVID-19
This is a short notice - current planned exhibitions in Ireland as part of the Over Nature touring exhibition in Ennistymon Courthouse Gallery, Clare (March-May 2020) and Luan Gallery, Athlone (June 2020) are postponed or subject to postponement due to the public institution closures as a result of the international COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Updates will be posted here with new dates as news is updated.
2nd March 2020
Image source: Northumberland Wildlife Trust
New Works: Chthonik
A new project begins in April 2020 with a residency at Kielderhead Wildwood Project, Kielder, UK. The residency is part of the Visual Art in Rural Communities residency programme ENTWINED: Rural Land Lives Art. The one-month residency will see new research into forest networks and how trees communicate, and a comparison with community and digital networks. A regular series of video posts, and a selection of installations built on-site will complement this documentation.
As part of this project, I am seeking new partnerships and directions of collaboration. I have already spoken to some of the team at partner organisations Northumberland Wildlife Trust, Newcastle University, Sunderland University and Northumbria University. Research will be documented as part of the artistic process, and I expect published papers to come from the project results. All collaboration and updates will be shared first on the ENTWINED project page.
Supported by the Arts Council of Ireland Travel & Training Award.
This project will conclude the five year long Antikythera Etc., and will contribute new works to the project Solastalgia.
11th February 2020
New Video: reappropriation
Video documentation of the new artwork Reappropriation in situ at the Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny, Ireland, from February 6th-March 7th 2020.
Artwork #4 from the series Antikythera Etc.
4th February 2020
New Artwork: reappropriation
A new artwork has been built for the upcoming fourth leg of the Over Nature exhibition, titled reappropriation (2019-20). The video and mixed media installation rests as an analysis of the role of plastic in capitalist society. Its first exhibition is at the Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny, Ireland, from February 6th-March 7th 2020. The video, set into an area that appears dug out from the gallery floor, features people transporting plastic underground in a post-capitalist society, holding on to the one resource that really matters.
Made with assitance from Marc Rome and the Regional Cultural Centre Letterkenny, and in collaboration with Amy Bunce. Artwork #4 from the series Antikythera Etc. Part funded by the Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny.
1st February 2020
Funding awarded: Arts Council of Ireland Travel and Training Award
The Arts Council of Ireland have announced they will support the upcoming research residency as part of the ENTWINED residency programme working with Visual Arts in Rural Communities, Northumberland, England in April 2020.
The residency will feature research into mycorrhizal networks, digital networks, and the importance of multifaceted entities in social or natural groups. More information will follow on this website and on the ENTWINED website and social media.
13th January 2020
Critique: Over Nature
Visual Artists Ireland have produced a critique of the Over Nature touring exhibition, written by art writer Philip Kavanagh. The critique can be read online, which features sections about the artwork faigh ar ais as an fharraige. Read the critique here.
11th December 2019
Catalogue: Over Nature
The catalogue for the Over Nature touring exhibition is available for sale at each exhibition venue, and through the Library Project, Temple Bar, Dublin.
The catalogue includes images of the artworks from each of the six contributing artists, and a curatorial response to the artists and the exhibition by curator Valeria Ceregini.
A preview of the catalogue can be viewed online here.
5th December 2019
Residency Award: ENTWINED
In December 2019 I have been awarded a one-month funded residency at Kielderhead Wildwood Project, Kielder, UK, as part of the ENTWINED Residency Programme run by Visual Arts in Rural Communities (VARC), Northumberland, UK.
I will spend the month of April 2020 conduicting research into the fungal (mycorrhizal) networks at the wildwood project, in collaboration with VARC and their partners, including Northumberland Wildlife Trust, Newcastle University and Northumbria University. This will form part of the Antikythera, Etc. and Solatalgia projects.
The residency will conclude with a plan for interactive artworks about the 'Wood Wide Web', a concept coined by Canadian scientist Suzanne Simard in 1998, which will be exhibited as part of the residency exhibition programme in 2021.
latest exhibitions
over nature iv
as part of the ongoing group exhibition Over Nature curated by Valeria Ceregini.
over nature iii
november 14th-December 21st 2019 Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin (IE)
as part of the ongoing group exhibition Over Nature curated by Valeria Ceregini.
over nature ii
as part of the ongoing group exhibition Over Nature curated by Valeria Ceregini.
over nature i
as 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
faigh ar ais as an fharraige
march 2018; rye creative center, rye, england
This mixed media installation, exhibited at Rye
Creative Centre from March 3-17 2018. It was created to respond to Rye, and to contemporary
trends in technology and language.
Taking influence from writing on language, technology and society, this artwork was exhibited as a single exhibition.
faigh ar ais as an fharraige is a new project developed for Rye Creative Centre. The exhibition features an interactive digital artwork inspired by history, contemporary culture, place and technology. Using a transposed recreation of JMW Turner’s painting ‘Rye, Sussex’ (1794-7) with a digital touchscreen containing terminology from Sussex, faigh ar ais as an fharraige invites the audience to participate in altering, shifting or changing their visual landscape.
This is the third artwork in the series Antikythera, etc. that began in 2016. The series explores the relationship between technology and transience, telling stories about lost histories through contemporary media.
Supported by Culture Ireland as part of GB18: Promoting Irish Arts in Britain.
See shows for more details.