Aoife Shanahan is a visual artist based in Dublin, Ireland. She received her MFA in Photography from the Belfast School of Art (2018). Her work is driven by a strong interest in camera-less photography. Her experimental approach towards traditional analogue materials allows her to explore their expressive possibilities and to question their contemporary relevance in a digital era. She also holds a degree in Pharmacy from Trinity College, Dublin.
Bio trace
“During lockdown, I started to think about how micro-organisms are all around us and how their activity mostly goes unnoticed. This work is a series of biograms that attempt to visually represent this on-going activity, documenting their presence and making a permanent record of their impact when displaced from their natural environment.”
A piece of film is exposed to a source of bacteria and stored in a dark place for several weeks. The bacteria feed on the film’s silver gelatin emulsion, destabilizing it. As the culture grows, it consumes the gelatin as a food source and liberates the silver particles into abstract patterns. Eventually the bacteria die and no more changes occur. The film visibly altered is scanned, a permanent record of their presence.
BioTrace — Aoife Shanahan
