My work deals with the representation of women on screen and in contemporary culture, specifically how bodies are controlled and monitored through neoliberal narratives of empowerment and individuality. My practice consists of durational, live and online performances and installation, using digital manipulation such as green screen technology and feminist performance art strategies such as repetition,
My work deals with the representation of women on screen and in contemporary culture, specifically how bodies are controlled and monitored through neoliberal narratives of empowerment and individuality. My practice consists of durational, live and online performances and installation, using digital manipulation such as green screen technology and feminist performance art strategies such as repetition, parody, alter ego and failure. I have exhibited nationally and internationally, most recently in a group show in Los Angeles and a solo exhibition at the Ballina Arts Centre. I am also co-founder and organiser of WANDA: Feminism and Moving Image, an annual festival in Belfast, www.wandabelfast.com. I have taught on BA courses in a range of topics in both theory and studio practice. I have a PhD with Practice from Ulster University. I am a member of Array Collective, winners of the Turner Prize 2021.
www.lauraoconnorart.com
ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS
2018 PhD in Fine Art, Ulster University
2016 Associate Fellow of Higher Education Academy (AFHEA)
2009-2011 Masters in Fine Art (MFA), Ulster University
2004–2008 Sculpture and Combined Media BA (Hons), Limerick School of Art and Design
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2018 Uncomfortable State, Ballina Arts Centre, Co. Mayo
2016 On the Internet everybody knows you’re a girl, QSS Gallery, Belfast
2015 Simulations, Interfaces & Performativity, PSSquared Gallery, Belfast
2013 The Pensive Spectator, TransArt, 61 College St Gallery, Cavan
GROUP EXHIBITIONS AND PERFORMANCES
2019
Urgencies, CCA Gallery, Derry-Londonderry
2018
Lovely weather (for this time of year), Performance, Cavan
Acts to Objects, LACE Gallery, Los Angeles
2017
Performance Weekend, Townhall, Cavan
Glitch Festival, RUA RED Gallery, Dublin
Belfast Film Festival, performance, Black Box, Belfast
2016
Belfast International Festival of Performance Art, Ulster University, Belfast
RUA Annual Exhibition, Ulster Museum, Belfast
This Frontier so Familiar so Strange, ARTicle Gallery, Birmingham School of Art, Birmingham
2015
Livestock at FIX15, performance festival, Platform Arts, Belfast
Two For Many, Array Studios Group Show, Townhall Cavan
RUA Annual Exhibition, Ulster Museum, Belfast
Film Free and Easy, Primary Gallery, Nottingham
I’ll sing you a song from around the town, performance with Amanda Coogan, RHA Gallery, Dublin
The Beauty Parlour, Culture Night Belfast
Live Stock, Performance night, MART, Dublin
Remote Photo Festival, Regional Arts Centre, Letterkenny, Donegal
Indecency, Trans Art Cavan
2014
Performing the self, performing the other, Dublin Live Art Festival @Art Lot, Dublin
2013
Members Show, Array Studios Belfast
Belfast late night art, PS2, Belfast
2012
Trans Art Cavan Festival, Cavan
A (brief) History of Looking Project, Culture Night, Belfast
Television, Tactic Gallery, Cork
LECTURING / WORKSHOPS
Visiting Lecturer in Video Art on Photography with Video BA (Hons)
Belfast School of Art
Ulster University
Apr 2018 – May 2018
Part-Time Seminar Leader/ Tutor in Art History & Theory BA Fine and Applied Arts
Belfast School of Art
Ulster University
Oct 2015 – Jan 2016
Green screen and performance module co-ordinator on Sculpture Lens-based BA (Hons)
Belfast School of Art
Ulster University
Feb 2015 – Apr 2015
Artist in Residence & Workshop co-ordinator
PS Squared Gallery & New Lodge Arts
Aug 2013 – Sep 2013
PUBLIC SPEAKING/ARTIST TALKS
2015
Performance technologies, performance pedagogies, Talk and panel discussion, Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), Dublin Live Art Festival
Remote Photo Festival, Talk and panel discussion, Regional Art Centre, Letterkenny
Belfast Exposed women’s day talks, Belfast Exposed Gallery
Thursday lecture/artist talk, Ulster University, Belfast
AWARDS & FUNDING
2013-2016 Department of Employment and Learning (DEL), PhD Scholarship.
2017, 2013 & 2011 Support for Individual Artists Programme (SIAP) Awarded by the National Lottery and the Northern Ireland Arts Council.
2013 Tyrone Guthrie Bursary Awarded by the Cavan Arts Office.
2010 Tommy McLoughlin Award Funding for up and coming Cavan artists awarded by Cavan Arts Office and McLoughlin family.
CONFERENCES
2018
Creative Practice Symposium
Film & Screen Media department, University College Cork
2015
Feminism & the Body in Performance: Current Practices,
2-Day symposium, MART Gallery, Dublin
Console-ing Passions 2015 International Conference on Television, Video, Audio, New Media and Feminism, Dublin
Aesthetics and the Feminine Conference, Society for Women in Philosophy (SWIP) & Philosophy Department University College Cork
SIBEAL Irish Postgraduate Feminist and Gender Studies Network 8th Annual Conference, University of Limerick
SELECTED REVIEWS & PUBLICATIONS
2017 Review of Uncomfortable State, In:Action blog by El Putnam
2016 International Sculpture Center Blog, Interview ‘In the studio with Laura O’Connor’ by Dorothy Hunter
www.vileine.com, Article ‘Selfie: beauty rituals, not only heavy for mermaids’ by Sietske Roorda.
2014 Abridged 0 – 37: Torquemada magazine, cover image
2012 Jane Fonda, Live Art & Videotape in Physical Stuff Made Strange, Printed Project 15, by Alistair McLennan in article by Aine Phillips, edited by Vivienne Dick
2011 In View, Aesthetica Magazine, review Fiona Lovely, issue 39 Spring.
