Kerri McEvoy

An open prayer book sitting on top of dressing table. A photograph to the left shows a woman preparing a girl in communion dress

Kerri McEvoy (b. 1983) is an interdisciplinary artist from Monaghan, Ireland. Her work is concerned with societal and institutional conditioning and subsequent prevalence of violence against women. Her interest in theatre, film and television stems from childhood, accompanying her mother's pursuit in amateur dramatics and the ever present hum of the TV.

McEvoy received her Bachelor of Design in printed textiles from NCAD, Dublin. Having worked in the Textile, Fashion and Beauty industries for over fifteen years, she returned to study in 2020, undertaking a Post Graduate Diploma at the Royal College of Art. Graduating in 2021 with a distinction, she continued in pursuit of an MA in Print. She currently lives and works in London.

Text from a page of a script is painted over in soft pinks and yellows. Text "some habits lie too deep to be changed" remains.

When we've liberated ourselves we will have to ask who we are. - Women Talking, Sarah Polley, screenwriter.

My practice has taken the shape of a personal examination. I am perhaps attempting to deconstruct and assess my own experiences and create connections to dismantle and dispel feelings of shame.

I have been collecting objects and have simultaneously been engaging with processes of erasure. Objects have the potential to evoke thought and emotion, to forge connections. I find myself thinking through collecting and creating a bricolage of sorts, the construction of a fictional setting embedded with material that once accompanied previous lives. I have predominantly collected objects familiar to me in my formative years, while questioning decisions I have made personally and more broadly, societal conditioning. Collecting additional objects more familiar to previous generations of women has evoked thoughts on indoctrination and subsequent transgenerational trauma.

Thinking on how process reveals experience, I have used modes of erasure, in response to my thoughts on violence, specifically violence against women and domestic violence. Erasure has involved sanding my own image; a passport photo, etching the same image until the plate becomes paper thin, redacting legal documents and painting over a script. The inclusion of materials removed and traces of what once was may invite thoughts on reduction, transformation and remains.

I am seeking to engage with understandings of girlhood and womanhood. Through the introduction of concealed audio, I am questioning the culture of silence surrounding this shared female experience, the circularity of violence and shame. What happens when we decline to conform to societal expectations? When we are liberated to ask ourselves who we are.

gif of 20 images demonstrating the gradual erasure, a series of photo etchings of a passport photo in burnt umber and vermillion

Undoing, 2023. – A series of etchings demonstrating the gradual erosion of a plate. A passport photo enlarged to life size is transformed. The receding image gives way to a scarred surface, colour still clinging to the edges. Ghost prints also inhabit the work.

Undoing, An Artefact, 2023. – Etched Zinc Plate (approx 30 hours of etching) 22.5cm x 28cm (approx)

Undoing (detail - etch 1), 2023.

Undoing (detail), 2023.

Undoing (detail - etch 4), 2023.

Undoing (detail - etch 6), 2023.

Undoing (detail - etch 11), 2023.

Undoing (detail), 2023. – The receding image gives way to a scarred surface, colour still clinging to the edges.

Undoing (detail - etch 15), 2023.

Undoing (detail), 2023. – The receding image gives way to a scarred surface, colour still clinging to the edges.

Undoing (detail - etch 17), 2023.

Undoing (detail - etch 20), 2023.

Medium:

Series of 20 photo etchings on Somerset velvet soft white 300gsm, Variable Edition 1 of 2.

Size:

32cm X 38 cm each

GAL, 2023. (cropped edition, 1 of 5) – Found publication of Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, acrylic and pencil. 10.75cm x 17.5cm x 1.5cm

Found publication of Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, acrylic and pencil. 10.75cm x 17.5cm x 1.5cm

GAL (detail), 2023. – Found publication of Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, acrylic and pencil. 13cm x 19.75 x 1.5cm

GAL, 2023. – A found publication of Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, the script is painted over in soft hues of pink, yellow and cream. 1 of a variable edition of 5.

GAL (excerpt p8/p9, Pygmalion, a retelling), 2023. – Giclee print on Somerset 300gsm. 50cm x 41cm Edition of 25

GAL (excerpt p20/p21, Pygmalion, a retelling), 2023. – Giclee print on Somerset 300gsm. 50cm x 41cm Edition of 25

Medium:

Found publication of Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, acrylic and pencil

Size:

13cm x 19.75 x 1.5cm

class erasure female mythology object painting poetry reduction script text theatre women

A Tale of Erasure

Stubborn stubble scours a velvet expanse,

downward heat penetrating

down

swiftly stripped,

sharpness softens to a scalded balded blur.

I come away fractured, folded in on myself.

Pieces of me reduced to sand in making pieces of you.

Reduced to Sand - Fractured, 2023. – Sanded Giclee Print on Hahnemuhle photo rag, sandpaper, broken glass with pigment, carborundum. 41.5cm x 57cm Carborundum conceals and repairs a broken segment of glass held in place by metal frame.

Reduced to Sand - Fractured, 2023. Sits within sketch of Good Girl.

Reduced to Sand - Fractured (detail), 2023.

Reduced to Sand (Audio element), 2022. – Soundscape of sandpaper erasing image.

Reduced to Sand, 2023. – Sanded Giclee Print on Hahnemuhle photo rag, sandpaper and pigment on glass. 78.5cm x 61.5cm The pigment removed through sanding of the printed image is embedded onto the inner side of the glass.