The NSF, in association with Cork Film Festival, is delighted to present new commissioned art work by an award-winning artist.

Elaine Hoey appropriates contemporary digital technologies and aesthetics to explore the politics of humanity. Her work reminds us of the political stakes, not only of the images the media reveals, but in the way our eyes and bodies encounter them. This interactive virtual-reality installation explores the bio-political hegemonic control that was exerted over women and children in Mother and Baby institutions under the guise of state sanctioned moral and religious supremacy in Ireland. In this work The Ground Opened Up the viewer enters a world that is in mourning, where power over one’s body is threatened, provoking internal anxieties of loss of control at the ultimate site of contention – the body.

Utilising virtual reality technology Elaine Hoey investigates immersing the viewer in performative and often uncomfortable roles within her digitally constructed worlds exploring the potential of mediated presence as an experience capable of challenging perceptions of the virtual and the real.

She recently completed an MFA at the NCAD, Dublin in June 2017 and in 2016 she won the RDS Taylor Art Award for her work The Weight of Water. She has recently exhibited at Dublin Science Gallery; Highlanes, Drogheda ; Draíocht Blanchardstown; The Model Sligo; and her work will be part of Gangwon International Biennale in South Korea in Feb 2018.

Elaine was recently awarded the R.C. Lewis Crosby Award (€5000) for her interactive virtual reality MA work Stranger Than Fiction is Fact. Elaine was also made the first recipient of a new three-month residency award (summer 2018) in partnership with the Centre Culturel Irlandais (CCI) in Paris. More at: RDS Visual Art Awards.

Instructions
The installation comprises of two 7 minute VR presentation and is each designed to take one individual at a time. Participation must be booked in advance online at corkfilmfest.org or by calling 021 427 1711.

*the event is free but as places are limited booking is required.

Supported by the Creative ireland Programme – an all-of-government five year initiative, from 2017 to 2022 which places creativity at the centre of policy.