Graduate Awardee Nollaig Molloy's Online Screening of Retreat to Stone, Stone in Retreat, available to watch on the Catalyst Arts' website from Thursday 25 March.
Retreat to Stone, Stone in Retreat is a phrase derived from periods of time spent at three specific sites in artist Nollaig Molloy’s rural locality. These places are inhabited by limestone outcrops, hawthorn trees and gorse bushes; the ever-present yet changing characteristics of the land. The visual and physical impact of the quarry industry, archaeological discovery and local authority engineering magnifies a human presence on the land. These effects are representative of a relationship that is fixated on value; the extraction of valuable resources and the priority of industrial or historical significance. Molloy offers an alternative exploration that is ventured through personal observation, poignant memory and tangible experience.
Nollaig Molloy lives and works in the northwest of Ireland. She graduated from Belfast College of Art in 2020, with a Master’s of Fine Art. She was recently awarded a Development Residency with Belfast Print Workshop and the Emerging Practice Award with Fingal Arts Office - the Public Art Project Infrastructure in 2018 is yet to be realised.
The Catalyst Arts Graduate Award is offered on an annual basis to a graduating student from Belfast College of Art’s BA and MFA Fine Art programmes. This Award supports an early career artist to develop a new body of work for a solo presentation with Catalyst Arts.
This programme was supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Art Fund.