Aislinn O’Keeffe
Aislinn O’ Keeffe is a visual artist and activist currently undertaking a PhD at Limerick School of Art and design. Her research is practice based and multi-disciplinary in the field of visual art. Through her research, O’ Keeffe aligns the figure of the witch as feminist archetype of subversion and disruption with her artistic practice and activism. Her art practice has become a means of exploring and highlighting current feminist issues such as social reproduction theory and the role of women in capitalist society. Magical processes aligned to the witch, inform her artistic practice and are explored as a means of consciousness-raising.
PhD Research Topic: ‘Of Air and Darkness we Cast Fire: The Re-emergence of The Witch in 21st Century Irish Visual Art Practice’.
Aislinn is currently also a Research Assistant for the SATLE funded project ‘Using Accessible VR for Interdisciplinary Teaching, Learning and Collaboration’ (Jan – Dec 2023).
In a capitalist world of increasing exploitation, oppression and violence, an ancient figure has been summoned. The figure of the witch, long demonised and weaponised against women, has been conjured by the artist through her artistic process and activist work. The witch is a threat to the putrescent capitalist system and is therefore a figure wholeheartedly embraced and embodied by the artist. A reciprocal relationship between the artist’s work as an activist and her art practice is under development where the artistic process informs and emboldens the activist work and vice versa. Witchcraft and magical practices are harnessed to conjure an interdisciplinary art practice that seeks to subvert capitalist patriarchal notions of femininity, and especially of working class femininity. An engagement with two local historical figures, reputed to be witches, by means of the historical record, and documenting and responding artistically and magically to associated sites also form part of the artistic process. Witch and artist are one, the age of disruption has begun.
Recent Research Publication & Dissemination
‘Witch 21st Century Disruptor – Artist Talk and VR Experience’, Anima Mundi: for the love of the world: 8th Annual Art and Psyche Symposium. Limerick School of Art Design, Clare Street, Limerick. Saturday Apr 22nd, 2023. Artist talk and VR exhibition including virtual guided tour of the space through Oculus headsets.
LSAD Academy Lunchtime Lecture Talks, Limerick School of Art and Design, 9th March 2023.
‘Making Witch’s Ink’, installation and online exhibition accessed via QR code for Heritage Week 2022, Rock of Cashel, Tipperary 13th August 2022 – 21st August 2022.
‘From Durer to Jesse Jones: Magic and Witchcraft in Western Art from the 15th century to the Present’, online lecture, Clonmel Liberal Arts Society, 31st March 2022.
‘Witchcraft and Magical Processes as an Imaginative Device in Contemporary Irish Visual Arts Practice’, online presentation and talk, Arts Humanities and Social Sciences (AHSS) Postgraduate Conference, 27th and 28th May 2021.
‘Of Air and Darkness we Cast Fire: the re-emergence of the witch in 21st century Irish Visual Art Practice’, online presentation and talk, Shannon Region Postgraduate Conference, 18th and 19th May 2021.
‘Searching for the Witch’, online solo exhibition, November 2020.
‘Reclaiming ‘the season of the witch’, article in The Socialist online edition, October 22nd 2020.
‘Women, Witches and Witch Trials in Europe’, lecture, Cahir Social and Historical Society, Great Hall Cahir Castle, Tipperary, 17th October 2019
‘From Women to Witches; witch hunts as a midwife to capitalism’, Bread & Roses Festival of Socialist Feminism, talk and discussion, Project Arts Centre, 26th October 2019.
‘Ain’t I a Woman? A night of Arts Experimentation’ group exhibition at South Tipperary Arts Centre, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, September 2019.
‘PeakShow Exhibition’, group exhibition, The Loft at The Locke Bar, Limerick, February 2019.
