Leanne Finnegan: spiritual voids

Dublin based artist, Leanne Finnegan, charts constellations of a multifaceted process. As she succinctly walks me through her artistic realm, a grounded gaze comes across immediately. An impending simile of what her work presents itself as. After exploring video and conceptual work at IADT in Dublin, Leanne’s practice now situates itself in the digital domain. Along with the voice she’s defined through video art, moving images and 3D modeling, Leanne portends an exploration of other mediums during her time at PILOTENKUECHE.

Leanne takes a closer look at spirituality

The breadth of her curiosity comes forth in the range of references embedded in her practice. Mesmerized by primitive forms of artistic expression, Leanne reminisces on the early pagan and pre-catholic culture that permeates Irish heritage and landscape. Alluding to ritualistic, religious and spiritual approaches of art-making, Leanne recontextualizes such primal ways in a radically contemporary environment. Juxtaposing such elements mediates a dialogue between the past and present, reflecting on the irrevocable parallelisms between them.

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images by PILOTENKUECHE or supplied by the artist

Inspired by theorists like Mircea Eliade, Carl Jung and Mark Fisher, Leanne creates spaces where transcendental philosophy, religion and the subconscious meet. By disclosing timeless commonalities with the past, she reflects on engrained aspects of our current spiritually impoverished system. How does capitalism skew people’s sense of desire and purpose? What void did spirituality fill back in the day, and how are we fulfilling that nowadays? Nonetheless, her references don’t exclusively bounce into questioning consumerist and capitalistic structures, but mostly strive to investigate the expanse of human experience.

“Religious references are a really good outlet for personal development and understanding the self”.

Crafting digital universes

With theoretical research as a principal stage of her process, Leanne’s practice aspires to render immersive digital ambiences. Her work presents itself as an independent body, encapsulating a vast horizon of sensation. Such holistic work results from a world building process where her research is transmuted into a whole metaphorical atmosphere incorporating ubiquitous audiovisual elements. In discussing the ample creative freedom that digital art allows, Leanne performs a particular aesthetic that provides a fresh format to past ideas and references.

Leanne resorts to an atmospheric craft to subvert elemental motifs – such as water and soil – through a digital gaze. The medium itself conceptualizes these rudiments in a contemporary environment, allowing for new associations and inventive engagements. In a consistent path to redefine her practice, Leanne is drawn to pair her digital dexterity with installation and sculpture. Regarding her upcoming projects, Leanne looks forward to “making pieces that don’t have a narrative to them, but evoke an entity of their own”.

written by Julia Polo