drobbartist@hotmail.com

Biography

Deirdre was born in Belfast where she presently lives and works. She studied at the UU where she gained her Masters and BA Honours. She is an installionist and sculptor and has exhibited throughout Ireland, Britain, Europe and USA. Deirdre is in a number of public and private collections and has been commissioned for public art sculptures including ‘Wall of Hope’ and artworks for the Holywood Arches Integrated Art project. Deirdre also curates exhibitions and coordinates exchange programmes at a local, national and international level. She is a founder member of Creative Exchange where she was Chairperson until 2004 and a former Director of the Engine Room Gallery. She has been a recipient of many awards including a Millennium fellowship, A&H scholarships, Tyrone Guthrie and ACNI awards.

Artist Statement

My main area of practice is sculptural installations, which identifies with cultural, physical and sensory aspects of the location in which it is placed. Throughout my work, I aim to capture transient moments experienced to give a sense of time, emotion and place.

This current body of work ‘Absence is Presence’ has a direct relationship to the Mill and captures fleeting moments in time to be preserved for historical representation. Although, the works convey a sense of a shadowed past, they all relate to a recent occurrence or experience while working in the studio and have personal relationships such as my print inspired by Ray Duncan’s studio. The image presented captured a fleeting moment and a personal insight to the artists working environment, yet has a resonance to artists who once worked in the mill when it was a fully operational printing mill. In essence, capturing a presence that is past.

Title: Presence is Past

Medium: Photec Etching

Title: Presence is Absence Series Shadows

Medium: Mixed Media