And we are back! It’s been a slightly longer break than expected since Series 4, but we are delighted to be back, and we think we have a really great lineup of guests to take to the island this time around. To open the series, we are welcoming a person who has been on Katriona’s wish list since we kicked off this project – artist, designer, sculptor and creative Richard Malone.
I could list the many and varied accolades Richard has been awarded to date, and I will, just for some context for those who are not familiar with him – although my sense of Richard is that these awards do not define him, and he seems to move on to his next artistic endeavour without seeking external validation. But anyhow, for context, I’ve hand-selected just a few.
He started his creative career in fashion; his entire graduate collection was picked up by Brown Thomas in Dublin, and in 2020 he won the International Woolmark Prize (former winners include Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld). He went on to focus more on sculpture than fashion, and his work has been displayed at the Royal Academy in London. You can also find Richard’s work in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the V&A Museum in London and the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne.
He also curated an exhibition titled Making and Momentum: In Conversation with Eileen Gray, celebrating modernism in Ireland and the influence of Irish craftsmanship globally. The exhibition concluded in his hometown in Wexford, Ireland – and from our conversation today, it is clear that Richard’s sense of provenance and connection to his homeplace is a huge influence on his work and on how he experiences working within the creative industry.
At the time of our interview, earlier this summer, Richard was about to announce a new commission – which we now know is a sculpture installation for the Council of the EU’s Justus Lipsius and Europa buildings in Brussels, as Ireland takes on the EU Presidency this year. The piece is titled Cuimhne agus Séadchomhartha (Memory and Monument), and we’ve put a link to a Guardian article below that shares an image of the installation, along with an interview with Richard.
For someone who has achieved so much recognition, Richard seems consciously detached from external validation and prioritises preserving his native social experiences and sensibilities to inform his work, rather than assimilating into stereotypical tropes of what a creative should be.
To this end, Richard’s four choices for the island led to such interesting considerations around accents and working-class tastes, along with social class differences and privilege in affluent art schools and London lifestyles.
This is a thought-provoking episode, and it was worth the wait to finally welcome Richard Malone to Desert Island Dress!
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Richard Malone's discusses his latest sculpture installation for the Council of the EU, as Ireland takes on the EU presidency this year: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2026/jul/09/richard-malone-ireland-eu-presidency-council
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