Julie Lovett

In 2018, I was one of five artists in Northern Ireland to be selected for the Freelands Artist Programme (2018-2020). This creative and professional development programme gave me the opportunity to exhibit a solo show of new work in PS2 Project Space, Belfast (October 2019). It also included participating in the group exhibition Quicksilver at the Freelands Gallery, London, (2021) and symposia (Sheffield, 2019) .

Up the walls. 2021 . 1 min 6 sec

Doing Nothing. 2021. 1 min 30 sec

Up the walls and Doing Nothing 2021 are works made in response to the failures and successes of attempting to make work in the artists studio. These works stem from both fictional and real situations of the everyday slog.

January Blues: another critical case and Village Scene scenario 2 are video works that mark the last leg of my time contributing to The Freelands Artist programme 2018-2021. These video works along with the above paintings/installation were part of the exhibition ‘Quicksilver’ in the Freelands Gallery, London. (March- April 2021)

‘Behavioural Problems’ is a video work made for the book launch of 'Old Lands New Waters', a publication by The Freelands Organisation in conjunction with the group show ‘Quicksilver’ showing at The Freelands Gallery (March- April 2021)

Freelands 2, 2020, was made by invitation to contribute to an instagram artist update post for The Freelands Foundation. The post is the result of a sequential and episodic approach to video making. The current work is made in response to my recent switch of positions from living in the city to living in the countryside. The video content is an extension of previous artworks I have produced and plays with the trial and error decision processes and intuitiveness of making and doing. Thematically, the work deals with the engagement of factual and fictional narratives surrounding the lives of professional artists based upon the influences of their immediate environment.

Am, doing. 2019 was made in my studio after a long stint of sitting on my chair, nearly falling asleep whilst frustratingly thinking that I should get up and do something. It is a response to my ongoing relationship and challenges with making work in specific spaces.

This work recently featured in a group show (Open studio&group show at 10 The Belfry, 2019. which was part of The Thomastown Creative Arts Festival 2019, Kilkenny, Ireland) . The piece was shown in a domestic, sitting room space within the natural confinements of an aesthetically modern family home. It was screened on the family TV.

Two main scenes and one interruption -1, 2 &3 are a series of ongoing studies that delves into the logistics, behaviors and romantic tragedies of public, private and abstract spaces. The practice repeatedly involves the viewer as both an onlooker and a participant in relation to these spacial concerns. Although the end product of these studies is film, the work itself has been constructed through a lengthy process of incorporating multiple media and activity sources- painting, drawing, performing, D.I.Y., talking, running, sitting, staring, doing nothing etc. all play specific roles in the process and outcome of the works production. Using my own real life situations and scenarios as a working artist, I have adopted the studio setting as a playing field to activate and heighten the happenings and actions of the world outside it. For me, these studies attempt to make sense of interior and exterior spaces, times and experiences through their own meticulous collaborating, manufacturing and compositing.

Seeing Sound Part 1 &2. 2019 is a two- part film made in both Belfast and Kerry. This work is the result of a lengthy process of collecting and recording both purposely, set -up and instinctively whimsical scenes. The work is a continuation of my ongoing interest into recreating narrative and exploring language through familiar yet opposing spaces, objects and contexts.

Holes, Four and Five. 2019 is a film which explore ideas of local-ism and place, playing with notions of gossip, storytelling and re-constructed narrative through varied sources and environments.

The filming and its location took place in an old, unused shed on our farm in Castlemaine, Co.Kerry. The shed, now frozen in history, during my childhood functioned as the dwellings for the bull of the farm ( referred to as ‘the bullhouse’ and was considered a dangerous space for children) and further back in the early 1900’s, it served as the place of birth for my grandfather and his seven siblings.

In October ‘18, I took this space over and transformed it into a typical art studio type environment- performing the clichéd physical actions of an active studio space (painting the walls white, the floors grey…drilling holes through walls). This shed has now taken on a new function as both a self-aware working space and also an adapted prop for the formation of new work. The space continuously jumps in and out of roles. This rural space will be the source of an on-going narrative contributing to my practice in the upcoming months.

This site-specific work aims to challenge perceptions of traditional painting, performance and film through various social environments and spatial relationships. Incorporating actual radio documentary footage, the film adapts this audio source as a tool for exploring the traditional formalities and functions associated with foreground and background in both film and painting. This film aims to question the boundaries and possibilities of interior, exterior and abstract spaces.

The Interview was an impromptu reaction to a real life interview I was preparing for. (The Freelands artist programme Interview). It draws and bounces off my previous film Exhibit A (2018). Filmed in the same domestic space with the same performer, it takes ideas of familiarity, the immediacy of objects and the creation of narrative. It plays on the current day phenomena of the selfie/reality TV culture whilst also making light- hearted commentary to the life of the modern day artist.