Enaction (1-3) — Ciara McMahon

This body of work has three iterations: photography, a film short and most recently paintings. The painting show (Enaction (1) was installed at The Custom House Gallery And Studios, Westport in early September 2022.

Enaction (1-3), the series mines portraiture - of people and objects, in relaitonship with each other. This body of work examins how meaning can be created somewhere between the two. Influenced he Sby the seminal work of cognitive science The Embodied Mind, (Francisoc. J.Varela, Evan Thompson And Eleanor Rosch) I am preoccupied with how our intimate relationships tell through our body language: how we sit, or stand. How we are in the world. I am also intrigued by our relationships with/to Objects. Those soft toys, shoes, ovens which - possibly who ? - have eben with us through thick and thin, occasionally longer than our significant other. I'm fascinated by quirky, idiosyncratic, potentially ugly pmeaningful objects. Below you iwll find a Film short, some of the photographic portraits and paintings.

Is it possible to make a portrait of an Object or indeed a person? Can a body part or a partial Object act as a portrait?

(1: Evan Thompson 2010, Mind In Life: Biology, Phenomenology, And The Sciences Of Mind)

Dad+Bean_water soluble oil on line_30cm × 20cm_CMcM_IMG_0783.jpg

Doors 2_16 by 24 inches_Digital print in liquid acrylic_Ciara McMahon_2018.jpg

Bathroom 2_16 by 24 inches_digital print in liquid acrylic_Ciara McMahon_2018 (1).jpg

Cat_16 by 24inches_digital print in liquid acrylic_Ciara McMahon_2018 (1).jpg

How Hot_16 by 24inches_digital print in liquid acrylic_Ciara McMahon_2018 (1).jpg

Aga clothes_inches_Digital print in liquid acrylic_CiaraMcMahon_2018 (1).jpg

Paul_water soluble oil on linen_30cm x 20cm_2018_CMcM_IMG_0785.jpg

QuantumEntaglement_mixed media on cotton_120cm x 150cm_2018- 20222_20220828_152444.jpg

Peter+Sean_mixed media on cotton_40x 30cm_2018 - 20222_CMcM_0220818_212121.jpg

Liminal Boundary (Door)_mixed media on cotton_40cm x 30cm_20222_CMcM_20220819_104545.jpg

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Life of Objects (2018), Film short, 5min 23sec.

This film quasi-documentary follows the extinguishing of an Aga in the artists family home. The Aga lived in the house for 42 years effectively becoming a member of the family. The film short explores the blurring of the emotive boundary between the Aga and a family member who is turning it off (or euthanizing the Object in a way). The narrator is a priest and performs the death ritual spontaneously, quoting Rilke's Autum Day / Herbsttag. (Text below)

Autumn Day

It is time, Lord. Summer was grand.

Now lay your shadow on the day, and bathe your fields in the wind.

Let the late harvest linger.

Give it two more southern days.

Make it full and bring her final sweetness into those heavy vines.

If you have no house now, you never will have one.

If you are alone now, you will always live alone, Reading late in the fading light.

Writing letters with no end.

Wandering dark alleys.

Restless and uneasy.

A leaf on the wind.

Rainer Maria Rilke (This translation is by Scott Stewart, 2017

Herbsttag (Translation ) Herrabove: es ist Zeit. Der Sommer war sehr groß. Leg deinen Schatten auf die Sonnenuhren, und auf den Fluren laß die Winde los. Befiehl den letzten Früchten voll zu sein; gib ihnen noch zwei südlichere Tage, dränge sie zur Vollendung hin und jage die letzte Süße in den schweren Wein. Wer jetzt kein Haus hat, baut sich keines mehr. Wer jetzt allein ist, wird es lange bleiben, wird wachen, lesen, lange Briefe schreiben und wird in den Alleen hin und her unruhig wandern, wenn die Blätter treiben.