A sea change into something rich and strange - ELEANOR MCCAUGHEY

ELEANOR MCCAUGHEY

A Sea Change, into something rich and strange
Eleanor McCaughey
RHA, Ashford Gallery
Thursday 10 October — 10 November 2024

McCaughey’s practice explores thematic threads surrounding the body, identity and place, using symbols and metaphors that best express personal narratives. Watery hybrids, drowning dames, flailing females, peace offerings, magnetic moons, brain fog on the horizons and empathic monsters emerge in the work.
McCaughey's work is continually evolving through research, studio-based experimentation and current reflections on the body through lived experiences of endometriosis, infertility and menopause, out of which her conceptual concerns take shape. Looking at feminist phenomenology of art and form, this work is a personal attempt to express what it is to live in a female body. In the manifestation of this rich and strange world, the ‘woman’ arises in connection with female identity as she takes on multiple forms, as a mermaid, siren, bird, monster and negotiates the boundaries between mortal/divine, Christian/pagan, artificial and biological. Questioning the representation and construction of female social identity.
This work takes conceptual and aesthetic queues from the perpetually shifting coastal environment of Rossnowlagh, in Donegal. Recording climatic occurrences while roaming, listening, and mapping, the materiality of the work has been informed by gathering observations from naturally occurring forms, textures, colour, hues, tones, and light. The paintings, sculptures and installations embody the agency of the environment and memories of place past and present.
Throughout the making process, the artist has been in correspondence with poet Jill Kenny, sharing knowledge, myths, memories and personal narratives. Eleanor and Jill crossed paths on residency at Tyrone Guthrie Centre in 2023 and found common ground through lived experiences of sickness and healing. Jill Kenny was commissioned to write a piece for A Sea Change, into something rich and strange.

3 x sculptures, wood, plaster, en-caustic paint and beeswax.
Tiled Plinth, MDF, tiles and acrylic paint, 72x172cm

Skin deep 2024 Oil, crayon and gouache on Fabriano 70x100cms

Give us peace and repair, a myriad of parts 2024 Oil, crayon and gouache on Fabriano 70x100cms

Art monsters, all nails and gritting teeth 2024 Oil, crayon and gouache on Fabriano 28x38cms

Muddy in moonbeams and cutting layers 2024 Oil, crayon and gouache on Fabriano 56x38cms

You restless thing, sinking like a vapoury vixen 2024 Oil, crayon and gouache on Fabriano 28x38cms

Acrylic, tissue paper, fabric, Fabriano paper 300gsm and carpet tiles