Anna Donovan

3 September - 8 October

Opening 7:30pm Friday 2 September

Artist Statement

Anna Donovan uses clay to tell stories through creating figurative sculptures.

Myth-Understood

“I love a good story, finding myself invested entirely in the fate of the characters. However, I also often find myself wondering why they are the way they are, especially if they are portrayed as the villain of the piece.

Myth-Understood is a look at a few of the less than savoury characters specifically found in Greek mythology, I wanted to imagine them from a position of empathy, with humour and generally from an alternative stance.

Take the Minotaur for example, he’s not the most cheerful, but then would you be if you were stuck in a maze and your only visitor wants to kill you. Not to mention the endless bad hair days for the gorgon sisters, but at least the centaurs can amuse themselves playing merry-go-round.”

Anna Donovan

Starting with stoneware crank, Anna exploits the forgiving nature and sturdiness of the clay that allows her to chop and change and manipulate through a combination of hand building, press moulding and modelling. Sometimes porcelain slips are introduced to the early in the process with the intention to create subtle and sometimes unpredictable contrasts in texture and finish on the surface. More recently she has begun experimenting with glazes adding more layers.

As the use of slips and glazes opens up an opportunity to further inform the figure by manipulating textures and form through layers of clays, Anna often when appropriate bolsters the narrative aspect by exploring the potential of using different materials once the clay is fired. These include rusty old pieces of metal, parts of old dolls, old jewellery, wire, and other random finds.

The story that each piece has to tell reveals itself and evolves throughout the whole making process.

In general Anna mostly hopes to get smiles, but there is a slight edginess to her work that challenges the onlooker. Whether this is to widen their perception of what ceramics can be or to waken up their imagination, or something else entirely, that is for them to determine.

Anna credits her time working as a prop maker and scenic painter for many years as a huge influence on her artist practice. Other influences include visits to the Victoria & Albert Museum and Pit Rivers; trips to Italy, Greece; most things Renaissance; myths and fairy-tales.

Artist Biography

Anna graduated with a BA Hons in 3D Design (Ceramics) what was then University of Wales Institute, Cardiff in 1995. After returning to Northern Ireland in 1999 she became the first dedicated Props Master and Scenic Painter appointed by the Lyric Theatre, Belfast. Since 2010 Anna has returned to her studio practice joining the artist community at Conway Mill in Belfast, known as Artists @ the Mill.

Since focusing on her ceramics practice since 2017 Anna has exhibited throughout Ireland and the UK. More recently she has won awards for her ceramic work including the Irish Ceramics 2021 Award at ‘Sculpture In Context’ exhibition, Dublin, and Highly Commended Makers Prize at the Re-New exhibition, Craft NI in 2021.