Preview: Friday 26th January 2024 6.30-9.00pm.Â
ARTISTS IN CONVERSATION at 7pm
Terra Ignota is an exhibition of experimental artworks by artists John Elcock and Margaret O’Brien. Although distinct, the works are mutual in their exploration of intersections between art, bioenergy, and contemporary digital technologies. Through biotechnology, live biomaterials (soil, bacteria, electrons) are used with contemporary digital media to transform invisible energy from one live form into another.
Margaret’s work Resistance: West is an ongoing work that develops a live experimental orchestra using a series of microbial fuel cells made from local soil. A microbial fuel cell an electrical circuit that harnesses electrons released by bacteria in soil through organic decomposition. This work develops a series of musical instruments by translating the fluctuating electrical activity of bacteria in soil into sound. Its multi-cell construct produces a layered sound composition through nuances in note, pitch or tone that each cell emits relative to the specific soil sample. Through its live and unpredictable nature, the work explores parameters of failure in the pursuit of new discoveries.
John will be showing a new work specially created for Terra Ignota. Geist responds to the particular qualities of the Bridewell’s historic spaces and seeks to enter a dialogue with Margaret’s installation Resistance: West. John’s piece similarly uses site-specific, recovered earth to power a live artwork; in this case the soil itself distilling something of its spirit of place to illuminate a ghostly light –  powered by no extraneous sources. In doing so we are invited to reflect on the latent qualities of time and place, a reminder that what appears unseen is not always absent.
Biographies
John Elcock is a visual artist based in Liverpool whose work explores symbolism, birds and the numinous in a multidisciplinary practice centred on painting and conceptual sculpture. His work has been exhibited nationally with paintings recently featuring in the ING Discerning Eye, Wales Contemporary and Lynn Painter-Stainer prize exhibitions. A founder member of the Material Matters collective, he looks forward in Summer 2024 to their five-month residency at The Williamson Art Gallery.
Margaret O’Brien is a visual artist based between the UK and Ireland. Her work explores concepts of failure through installation using a combination of sculpture, sound, light, moving image and kinetics. Her work has been funded by Arts Council England, the Arts Council of Ireland; Irish Research Council; Arts and Humanities Research Board UK; University College London; and Trinity College Dublin. As well as an extensive exhibitions record, she regularly undertakes artist residencies including the Irish Museum of Modern Art; Helsinki International Artist Programme; Centre Cultural Irlandais, Paris; and Fire Station Artists Studios, Dublin.
Catherine Morris is a feminist artist scholar whose work focuses on archive, libraries and memory. Her work includes The Art of Aftermath (with American artist Tim Mail 2023), Alice Milligan and the Irish Cultural Revival (artist project including exhibitions and publications), performance poem In Mexico City A Woman Wrote: ‘They Took So much of Us, They also Took Our Fear’ (Engage Studios Home Truths Exhibition 2020). She is Associate Professor of Creative Writing & Literature at Hope University Liverpool.