An interview with artist Shane Finan about his collaborative project Furze: Fuel Fodder Thatch Tools Toys

Video by Serhii Shapoval

More information on the pavilion: https://www.mermaidartscentre.ie/whats-on/exhibitions/furze-fuel-fodder-thatch-tools-toys

More information on the project: https://shanefinan.org/VAP/15_aiteann.html

The uplands in Ireland can look spongy from a distance, like stones with thick moss that have been magically enlarged into mountains. Look closer, and you can see that mossy surface is scrubland, mostly heather and one other plant. That plant has many names: gorse, furze, whin or aiteann in Ireland, depending on where in the country you come from. And it is known for its traditions with fire.

This film documents an artist research project about the history and traditions around wildfires with aiteann/gorse and Sitka Spruce. In the film, artist Shane Finan cuts branches of the two plants then creates charcoal from them. Using the charcoal, he makes large scale drawings which he later burns.

Calling on cyclical traditions of burning as creation and change, the film is about how transferring the work between media changes how it is viewed. The climax of burning the drawings ensures that the works cannot be viewed as drawings ever again, but they continue to exist as digital archive in video and photograph.

From January to March 2025, I was artist-in-residence on FIRECULT, an international research project with partners in Ireland, the UK, Italy, Turkey and the USA. The project is investigating how wildfires affect cultural heritage. I was partnered in Ireland with UCD and the Irish Uplands Forum. The artist residency is run by The Maltings Berwick and Newcastle University, with three artists resident in three countries: Ireland, Italy and Turkey, developing artistic research related to wildfires. This film is a result of that research.

More information: https://shanefinan.org/VAP/15_aiteann.html

Artist shane finan delivers a talk on his work about wildfires in Ireland, with a focus on myth, tradition, folklore and technology in relation to the plant 'aiteann' (more commonly known as gorse).

shane made this work as part of the international research project FIRECULT, where they were artist in residence from January to March 2025.

more information: https://shanefinan.org/VAP/15_aiteann.html

delivered at The Maltings, Berwick-upon-Tweed June 17th 2025

Video artwork about myth and technology.

In Irish mythology, the Féth Fíada was a mist or cloak that was used by members of the Tuatha de Dannann to make them invisible from human sight. The veil allowed them to act in this world without repercussion, unseen but powerful.

Contemporary computing technologies are shrouded in many veils that obscure how they work, how they are made, and how their used parts are disposed. Everything from the inherent bias in social media or search engines to the invisible labour that extracts, transports, packages and delivers these items is a veil. Each time one is revealed, another seems to appear, obscuring the full picture. One way to explore this complex issue is to consider it from an ontology that is not rational, but instead is magical or mythical.

Shane Finan presents a 3-screen visual essay from the perspective of myth and magic, reminding us of the earthly properties of material technologies while also considering the extraordinary depth of interconnections in these objects. Beginning with a fresh consideration of his first mobile phone, he unravels dreamlike layers of complexity between technology, object and magic. Attention is focussed on the central screen through text, the dominant form of communication in mobile devices, while landscape images of those affected by these technologies are kept in the peripheries, on two other screens.

Watch as 2022 Decade of Centenaries Artist in Residence Shane Finan discusses his work with the Jackie Clarke Collection. Shane was artist in residence from May to November 2022. Over the six months, he used the collection to develop a new art installation, Assembly.

Drawing from printed materials (newspapers, leaflets, autograph books) and the idea of technology as a device for how stories are spread, he has created a new art installation that has taken over the Memory Room in the collection museum in late 2022 until the end of 2023. In this interview, commissioned by the Jackie Clarke Collection to celebrate their 10-year anniversary, Shane describes the creative process and his engagement with the collection and the people of Ballina to create his own story.

The residency was supported by Mayo Arts Office and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media under the Decade of Centenaries Programme. The video was created by Anula Productions.

Arguably, they have farmed us particularly well (2021)

Media: Trackball, web and open source code, video, audio, fence posts

An interactive artwork about touch, reaction and behaviour, and our illusions of power through technology.

This artwork is made up of three interaction touch points that connect to a video screen showing a sped-up video of a sheep-filled landscape, and a single animated critter made from a drawing of a sheep.

The piece was made on residency at Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Manorhamilton, Ireland (June-August 2021) and presented at the solo exhibition "Detached Touch" (August 13th-September 4th 2021). The residency and exhibition were supported by Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Wicklow Arts Office and the Arts Council of Ireland. The research preceding this work was developed as artist in residence on FIELD, a 6-university interdisciplinary project investigating the relationship between human and livestock through disease.

More information on this exhibition: http://www.leitrimsculpturecentre.ie/index.html

More information on FIELD: https://field-wt.co.uk/

More information on the artist: https://shanefinan.org/

Offering (2021)

Media: Raspberry Pi, fence posts, six video monitors, timber 180x160x25cm

A wall-mounted sculptural artwork about touch, care, screens and our relationship with technology and nonhuman colleagues.

This artwork shows six video monitors on a timed loop, each presenting a different perspective on touch. It draws influence from speculative ethics, posthumanist philosophy, and time spent with critters.

The piece was made on residency at Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Manorhamilton, Ireland (June-August 2021) and presented at the solo exhibition "Detached Touch" (August 13th-September 4th 2021). The residency and exhibition were supported by Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Wicklow Arts Office and the Arts Council of Ireland.The research preceding this work was developed as artist in residence on FIELD, a 6-university interdisciplinary project investigating the relationship between human and livestock through disease.

More information on this exhibition: http://www.leitrimsculpturecentre.ie/index.html

More information in FIELD: https://field-wt.co.uk/

More information on the artist: https://shanefinan.org/

it seemed like we were moving closer together (2021)

Media: Raspberry Pi, fence posts, plastic, Arduino, RFID cards & sensors, drawing, Python, several thousand transistors 250x250x250cm

An interactive artwork about microchips, critters & touch.

This artwork invited visitors into a gallery to create collages on a monitor from photographs with linked themes about human contact with nonhuman entities. Visitors changed the artwork using RFID cards that were programmed to display different sections of images based on which card was tagged at which device. The artwork encourages people to participate alone or together with other groups, and full images or mythical collages are possible from the images. Designed without audio and with care taken to ensure accessibility and interactivity for those with disability and limited mobility.

The artwork draws influence from speculative ethics, posthumanist philosophy, and time spent with critters.

This artwork was made on residency at Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Manorhamilton, Ireland (June-August 2021) and presented at the solo exhibition "Detached Touch" (August 13th-September 4th 2021). The residency and exhibition were supported by Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Wicklow Arts Office and the Arts Council of Ireland. The research preceding this work was developed as artist in residence on FIELD, a 6-university interdisciplinary project investigating the relationship between human and livestock through disease.

More information on this exhibition: http://www.leitrimsculpturecentre.ie/index.html

More information in FIELD: https://field-wt.co.uk/

More information on the artist: https://shanefinan.org/

The interactive digital art installation 'Chthonic' by Irish visual artist Shane Finan invites the audience to communicate with trees in different ways. By communicating through presence, sound and step, the installation lights up and creates links that represent the complex connections in forests.

The artwork is the last in a 5-year series of artworks, 'Antikythera, Etc.' by Finan, and also forms a crossover into the new project 'The Wood Wide Web', begun in 2019. The work takes celebrates the 30th anniversary of the World Wide Web alongside newer discoveries about how trees and fungi can communicate.

Antikythera, Etc. project documentation: https://shanefinan.org/visual_art_pages/antikythera_etc.html

This video documents the interactive installation from its completion in October 2020.

Video, editing, text and audio by Shane Finan.

Thanks to Amy for all the late-night work, and for the stomping.

A full sequence video from beginning to end of the interactive art installation 'The Repeated Refrains of Nature' (2019) by Irish artist Shane Finan.

The video and further information is available at: https://tube.tchncs.de/videos/watch/f26f1353-49ef-4aaa-8b2e-dcecdbd328ac