Margot Galvin

Statement

Finding our place within the world is an important aspect of human existence and attachment to place is a powerful component in informing and shaping our identity. A longing to belong, to be ‘at home’ somewhere is a fundamental human desire and it is this relationship between self and place and the implications for our identity that I explore in my work.
The philosopher Edward Casey refers to our place of origin ‘as an exemplar against which all subsequent places are implicitly to be measured’. This imprint of childhood environment has been labeled a ‘primal landscape’ and as people move about in life new places are considered in relation to this baseline landscape.

Both the theories of a primal landscape and Psycho-geography, (defined as a collision of geography and psychology that explores the impact of our surroundings on our psychological and emotional states), are influences on my practice.

The method used to explore these ideas is by interrogation of selected locales.These have varied from the Dodder river, the industrial landscape around Ringsend and more recently the architecture of Dublin city.

Motifs distilled from architectural features occur alongside more literal representations of the built environment. Materials such as metal, wood and glass are used to print on and occasionally used to bring print, traditionally a 2D medium, into non-traditional 3D ‘print sculptures’, objects or assemblages.

The works arising from this exploration may not be a straight forward imitation of initial observations but reconstructed ‘interpretations’ or responses to the experience of ‘being ‘ in a particular place.The resulting works are a composite of visual fact, feelings, memory and imagination.

Place, how we relate to it and form ties to it is at the heart of my enquiry.

Biography

Margot Galvin is an artist living and working in Dublin, Ireland. Her work examines the relationship between self and place. Psychogeography, the examination of how our surroundings affect our emotions and behaviour is an important theory in her work.
Drawing, Printmaking, photography, and painting are all used to explore these ideas.
Margot graduated from NCAD in 2012 with a 1st Class honours degree in Fine Art print. She completed her Masters in Fine Art at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin in 2014 and is currently a member of ‘AtHome’ artist group and The Black Church print studio, Dublin.
She has exhibited in the RHA and RUA annual exhibitions, Cairde, RUA RED, Galway arts festival, and more recently Draiocht ‘MakingArt Print’ as an invited artist. Her work is held in AXA, OPW, Law society of Ireland, NCAD collections as well as many private collections .