Ally Michelle McGrath - Textile Artist
Ally Michelle McGrath is a recent NCAD graduate having studied Fine Art and Education with a studio specification in Textile Art and Artefact. From Bray in County Wicklow - nicknamed the garden county of Ireland - she is inspired by her surroundings and her personal relationship with nature in everyday life. Particularly interested in hand embroidery and installation work, McGrath thinks and questions through making, which then overtakes space over time.
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My Current work is a response to both our innate hunger for nature and growing detachment from it in domestic spaces. This is much to the detriment of our physiological and emotional wellbeing.
Are the plastic plants and artificial wood textures in our homes a halfway point? Are they sacrificing the real thing but needing some tie to it however far removed? Nature interacting with our belongings often suggests the absence of us, however in this work the opposite is true.
Hand embroidery and plant-life build up covering objects and taking over a corner of my previously stark white bedroom/ makeshift studio space. With this project I am not creating fully imagined plans for the future but half built thoughts and blurry images of a time when nature is encorporated into every aspect of urban life. Born of equal parts daydreaming and research, the installation symbolises time spent thinking through making, questioning my own relationship with nature. It is a response to the siren-like call of nature in my own domestic space, living in an installation growing slowly around me as I develop my practice during a global pandemic.
Contact Me
0874533355
Fine Art Textiles