CELLULAR EXCHANGE

Cellular Exchange is the 2021 MTU Arts Office STEAM AWARD EXHIBITION. Presented online, from the James Barry Exhibition Centre, MTU. Full details on arts.mtu.ie.

The title was inspired by the commonalities in the artists’ work. It refers to “the process in which waste products and toxins within muscles are exchanged for healthy nutrients and oxygen”, and more generally to an exchange of content or information between cells. These artists present works examining bird migration patterns, technology and climate change, the physical body as a site of trauma and as an organism in its environment, and mycorrhizal fungi and plant inks.

The MTU Arts Office STEAM Award is presented annually to one or more graduating students from MTU Crawford College of Art & Design whose work uses or responds to “STEM” concepts, processes, or materials in insightful and innovative ways. We are delighted to present this exhibition as part of Cork Science Festival.

Exhibiting artists:

Fionn Van der Noll, Mary Whitty, Sarah Kelly.

Fionn’s work, a combination of weaving and print, utilizes repeated, habitual action and tradition to create strong and beautiful forms made out of natural and industrial materials – willow and metal. His prints reference ritual and civilization.

Mary has created a series of abstract prints with homemade plant and mineral dyes, and she has crocheted copper wire into facsimiles of plant forms – another small scale and repeated action.

Sarah’s work revolves around the body as a site of trauma and strain, an organism that responds to its environment. In soft sculpture I incorporate waste products; pill and drinks bottles, food wrappers and sanitary towels, creating a ‘skin’ that is punctured, twisted, burned and stretched.