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:
Other social media:
Signatory of Culture Declares Emergency:
latest news
11th October 2020
Residency Award: FIELD
I have been awarded the visual artist in residence award at the FIELD project. This 4-year interdisciplinary project features immunologists, economists and social scientists investigating disease and sustainable agriculture.
I will be working as artist in residence in collaboration with farmers in England, Ireland and Scotland, with new work created by April 2021.
Two other artists in residence prizes have also been awarded: Michele Allen is photographer in residence, working on a new project based in north England. Mark Jones is filmmaker in residence. We are all collaborating on new work, and working on individual tangents that will form a complete final project.
22nd September 2020
Updated 6th October 2020
POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19 RESTRICTION CHANGES
Upcoming Exhibition: As Tree
A curated exhbition run by Shane Finan, and featuring his own work and the works of Catriona Gallagher (UK) and Tadhg Ó Cuirrín (IRL) taking place in Tubbercurry, Sligo.
The exhibition will feature a new interactive light installation by Shane Finan and the first time the works by Ó Cuirrín and Gallagher will be shown in northwest Ireland. More details and booking available at the project web page.
24th August 2020
Online Conference Presentation: Rediscovering Wildness
A presentation of recent research about networks and wildness, led by Northumberland Wildlife Trust. The conference, originally due to take place in Northumberland, is now being presented online.
The morning-long conference will feature talks from Steven Lipscombe (Project Officer, Kielderhead Wildwood Project), Professor Ysanne Holt (Northumbria University) and Andrew Stringer (Head of Environment and Forest Planning at Forestry England). More information and registration are at the Northumberland Wildlife Trust's web-page - click on the image below for the link.
21st July 2020
Publication: Soil, Fungi and Chthonic Communication
The third of my publications for Newcastle University's Centre for Rural Economy is now available to read online. Edited by Adrienne Attorp and Beth Clark.
1st July 2020
Exhibition: in áit
An exhibition of three "restricted" paintings took place on the side of the road in Wicklow, celebrating the end of lockdown restrictions. The paintings and the process will be documented in the coming weeks.
14th June 2020
Publication: A Different Kind of Grief
A longform publication edited by Miriam Rasch for the Institute of Networks Cultures.
This article is linked to the Wood Wide Web project.
It expores the idea of solastalgia and disconnection from environment, and also introduces the importance of connectivity and networks. Grief is put forward as an emotional response to alteration of place.
2nd June 2020
Publication: Planting and Stewardship
A new article publication on art and place that looks at the importance of planting, and how we view forests as stewards or as economic overseers.
This article is linked to the Wood Wide Web project.
2nd June 2020
Award: Arts Council of Ireland COVID-19 Response Fund
An award to create new online work while in lockdown measures during COVID-19. The new artwork, titled 'as if you could kill time without injuring eternity' is currently being built. The work is an interactive web-based art installation taking influence from the Wood Wide Web project. The title is a quote from Henry David Thoreau's Walden
26th May 2020
Online Course: Making Art with Computer Programming
A three-part workshop and presentation course in computer programming for artists, showing the basics of image, animation and interactivity.
The course will include critical theory on art and open source technology.
It is being run through CuratorSpace. Full details of the course are available on the course outline page.
19th May 2020
Video Essay: Never Just a Tree #4 - Technology
The fourth video essay for the potponed residency, The Wood Wide Web is now available online.
Each post includes a long-form blog-post outlining the research toward this video:
Shane Finan: Monoculture Monoliths.
This is part of the residency programme ENTWINED: Rural Land Lives Art.
19th May 2020
Project page: Wood Wide Web
A project page is now available for the 'Wood Wide Web' project.
All research, video and thoughts from this project to date appear here.
latest exhibitions
over nature vi
september 26th-november 21st 2020 Luan Gallery, Athlone, Co. Westmeath (IE)
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
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.