Six questions for
Eleanor Duffin

How do you describe your own art practice?

My work is predominantly sculptural in nature and is characterised by the tension between materiality and form. It is driven by a curiosity to understand material intelligence and how matter can shift and escape control. I am drawn to the connoted and historical value of material and this intrigue also informs the production of her works. My work oscillates somewhere between the domestic and the alchemical. Through the adoption of scientific processes from an autodidactic position, my intention is to produce work that is autopoietic. I am drawn to materials that have a potential to be generative agents.

What was your first experience with art?

In Wexford, Ireland where I grew up there is a famous Opera festival every October. As part of this, there are numerous art exhibitions by local crafts people and visual artists. My Dad would take me to all of them and for years we would wander about trying to see everything possible. Then I demanded to go to all the art exhibitions at Wexford Art Centre, outside of the festival period. Finally they agreed to let me do some art workshops there as well. Although I never believed I would be an artist at that point. I just wanted to l know how art was made.

What is your greatest source of inspiration?

I suppose an amateur interest in science, mostly from an historical position and it’s connection to spirituality. Also the lure of a material or a feeling of wanting to get closer to understanding it’s tactile and physical sensation, as well as agency.

What do you need in order to create your work?

Time! I’m a slow burner and ideas need to gestate in me for a while. That and also lot’s of text to fill the time when ideas are slowly cooking.

What are you working on at the moment?

A project concerning geophangia, the act of eating clay.

What work or artist has most recently surprised you?

I can’t get “Our Product” by Pamela Rosenkranz out of my mind!