Aisling Keavey (1991) is a photographic artist, moving-image maker, curator and writer from Dublin, Ireland. Currently based in London, she is a graduate of Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art Design and Technology’s MRes course in Photography (2022, 4.0GPA), in which she reflected on the representation of Irish women in Britain post the Good Friday Agreement, and also Wimbledon College of Arts’ one-of-a-kind (and no longer running) BA course in Fine Art Print and Time-Based Media (2016, 2.1).
She has an intensely research-based practice, which spans photography, archival material, writing and moving image. Her work focuses on the migration of women from Ireland to the UK, using ethnographic interviews, photography and moving image to connect histories of migration with the contemporary.
Recent exhibitions include Dublin Art Book Fair 2022: A Caring Matter at Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, Images Are All We Have and On The History and Practice of Photography in Ireland, both at PhotoIreland Festival, July – August 2022; and Photo Fringe online 2020.
She has presented academic papers and posters at various national and international conferences, most recently as part of the Women’s History Association of Ireland ECR/PGR Day 2021, the Sixteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences The Opportunities of Crisis: Resilience and Change in World History, and Migrant Belongings: Digital Practices and the Everyday. She has won various awards for papers and research, including an Emerging Scholar Award and a Research and Innovation Seed Fund for Emerging Researchers from Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art Design and Technology.
Education
2022, MRes Photography, Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art Design and Technology, Dublin, Ireland
2016, BA Hons Fine Art Print and Time-based Media, University of the Arts London, Wimbledon College of Arts, London UK
2013, FETAC Level 6 Advanced Diploma Photography, Colaiste Dhulaigh, Dublin, Ireland
2011, FETAC Level 5 Diploma Communications and Media Production, Colaiste Dhulaigh, Dublin, Ireland
Solo exhibitions
2014, Photographs From Berlin, Wimbledon College of Arts Library, London, UK
Group exhibitions
2022, Heartland / Hearthland, Dublin Art Book Fair 2022: A Caring Matter, Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, Dublin, Ireland
2022, Laura, from Heartland / Hearthland, Images Are All We Have, PhotoIreland Festival; The Printworks, Dublin Castle, Dublin Ireland
2020, Ireland is my Hearth-land, Photo Fringe, online
2016, Immigration / Emigration, Show Two, Wimbledon College of Arts, London, UK
2016, Accidental Journeys, Liminal States, Gallery on the Corner, Battersea, London, UK
2016, Accidental Journeys, Spectacle, Wimbledon College of Arts, London, UK
2013, A Short Way from Here and Common History, Colaiste Dhulaigh graduate show, Gallery of Photography, Dublin, Ireland
2013, A Short Way from Here, Four Degrees of Separation, The Twisted Pepper, Dublin, Ireland
2012, Various portrait photographs, Homeless Gallery, PhotoIreland Festival; Migrations, D-Light Studios, Dublin, Ireland
Screenings
2022, Mamó, from Heartland / Hearthland, PhotoIreland Festival, On The History and Practice of Photography in Ireland, Dublin Ireland
2022, The Claddagh, from Heartland / Hearthland, PhotoIreland Festival, On The History and Practice of Photography in Ireland, Dublin Ireland
2020, The Claddagh, from Heartland / Hearthland, Elbow Room, Bussey Building, London UK
Presentations / reviews
2022, Artist talk, Joya: arte + ecología, Los Gázquez, Almería, Spain
2022, Open studio, Joya: arte + ecología, Los Gázquez, Almería, Spain
2021, Presenter, Photo London x BJP portfolio review, Somerset House, London UK
2019, Presenter, Folio Friday, Photographer’s Gallery, London UK
2018, Presenter, Photo Scratch #15, Hotel Elephant, London, UK
2017, Presenter, Photo Scratch #11, Hotel Elephant, London, UK
2017, Presenter, Spring Showcase, Hotel Elephant, London, UK
2017, Presenter, Q Art Open Crit, The Mall Galleries, London, UK
2017, Presenter, Show and Tell @ TATE EXCHANGE, Tate Modern, London, UK
2016, Presenter, Folio Friday, Photographer’s Gallery, London, UK
Awards / Grants
2022, Part of the London Creative Network (LCN) program at Four Corners, London UK
2022, Belfast Photo Festival open submission, shortlisted, Belfast UK
2021, Emerging Scholar Award, Sixteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences The Opportunities of Crisis: Resilience and Change in World History, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford UK
2020, Student Assistance Fund, Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art Design and Technology, Dublin, Ireland
2019, Research and Innovation Seed Fund for Emerging Researchers, Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art Design and Technology, Dublin Ireland
2016, The Old Girl’s Club Mentorship III – Shortlisted, London UK
Features / interviews
2022, Feature: Graduate Photography MA Supplement, Source Photographic Review issue 109: Status, Autumn 2022 (Selected by Pelumi Odubanjo, Independent curator and Photography writer), print
2022, Feature: Source Graduate Photography Online, Source Photographic Review, online
2022, Instagram residency, Vessel Editions Instagram, online
2019, Instagram residency, Photo Scratch Instagram, online
2018, Instagram residency, Photograd Instagram, online
2017, Instagram residency, The Old Girl’s Club Instagram, online
2016, Interview: “Aisling Keavey, photographic artist”, Creative Choices, online
2016, Interview: “Meet a Third Year – Aisling Keavey, Print & Time-Based Media student”, Wimbledon College of Arts blog, online
2016, Feature: The Print Space Trajectory, online
2016, Instagram takeover of Wimbledon College of Arts Instagram for Print and Time-based Media, online
2014, Feature: Girls Get Busy Zine #22, online
2013, Feature: Man With A Movie Camera, online
2013, Feature: Lenscratch self-portraits exhibition, online
Conference Presentations
2021, panel presentation, Thesis in Three, Panel 1 – Women, identity and Irish society; Women’s History Association of Ireland ECR/PGR Day 2021, online
2021, panel presentation, Using Digital Ethnography Methods to Explore Hybrid Identities among Irish Immigrant Women in London, Sixteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences The Opportunities of Crisis: Resilience and Change in World History, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford UK
2021, panel presentation, Using Digital Ethnography Methods to Explore Hybrid Identities among Irish Immigrant Women in London, Migrant Belongings: Digital Practices and the Everyday, Utrecht University, online
2020, panel presentation, Postcolonial Ireland; Representations of the Irish Diaspora in Britain from 1980 to the Present Day, British Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies Conference, DeSoto Hotel, Savannah, GA. USA
2019, Poster Presentation, Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art Design and Technology Teaching and Research Showcase, How have the Irish diaspora been represented from 1980 to the present day? Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dublin Ireland
2019, Panel presentation, Society and Progress; How have the Irish diaspora been represented in England from 1980 to the present day? Limerick Postgraduate Research Conference: “Research and Society: Innovation, Information and Impact”. The University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland
Residencies
2022, Joya: arte + ecología, Artist in Residence, Los Gázquez, Almeria, Spain
2013, Creative retreat, Valletta, Malta
Texts
2018, Accidental Journeys, The Journal of Psychology, Gender and Trauma
2016, ‘“The subject of an exhibition tends more and more to be not so much the exhibition of works of art, as the exhibition of the exhibition as a work of art” – Daniel Buren The Artist as a curator and how the gallery functions as an artistic medium and as gendered space’, Undergraduate Honours thesis
2016, “The Photography of Trauma”, The Precursor Project
2015, “How do Narrative Forms and Notions of the Archive Relate to Art Practice Today?”
Teaching
2022, Graduate Student Assistant, School of Performance, Wimbledon College of Arts, London UK
2017, Reading group facilitator, We Should All Be Feminists, The Depot, Hackney, London UK
2016, Workshop facilitator, Narrative Photo-book workshop, Object Book, Merton Abbey Mills, London UK
2015, Screen-printing assistant, CCW Progression Centre, Camberwell College of Arts, London UK
2014, Linocut printmaking assistant, CCW Progression Centre, Camberwell College of Arts, London UK
Curation
2017, Co-curator, The Reality Principle, The Depot, Hackney, London UK
2016, Co-curator, LIMINAL STATES, The Gallery on the Corner Battersea, London UK
2013, Curator, Four Degrees of Separation, The Twisted Pepper, Dublin, Ireland
Publications
2022, Heartland / Hearthland, self-published artist book
2016, Immigration / Emigration, handmade artist book, unique
2016, Accidental Journeys, handmade artist book, edition of 2
2013, A Short Way From Here, self-published photo book, edition of 15
2013, Common History, self-published photo book, edition of 15
Collections
Various self-published and handmade books in private collections in Ireland and the UK
Memberships
Irish in Britain
Women’s History Association of Ireland
British Art Network
Other
2018 – present, Reviewer, JAWS Journal, Peer-reviewed academic journal of arts writing by students