In response to the question "How do you describe your practice?":

One way I frame my interest is in terms of the idea of feedback loops, other forms of looping and repetition in general. Dynamic circuits seem to be fundamental to what is called life and might be associated with Control or alternatively with continuous communication, Dialogue. A frequent pattern materialising from circuits of this type is one involving disturbance followed by equilibrium.

Secondly I feel as though I am either searching for truth/reality or new models which make sense. While post-modern ideas connected with the suggestion of virtual reality, an acceptance of relativism, which in turn tended to create (an undoubtedly liberating) nihilism, an ironic outlook, I cannot help but feel bored by that long period of jokiness. In fact ‘the joke’ has formed part of the subject matter I’ve focused on in recent years. My work tends to reflect an oscillation between Romantic or Modernist idealism and demanding the right to indulge in absurdity or even embrace punky self-destructiveness. This is contradictory.

Practically what emerges, are short looping animations and ritualistic performances with objects such as cups and beakers, potties or eggs. These items, which act as motifs, typically obtained in untypical fashion, might hold invisible subversive content. I, at least, imagine the objects themselves are liable to cause disturbance. A professional clown performs in certain pieces I develop. Generally evidence of dynamics and the timeline needs to be palpable though escape from the 'time order' is the intention, or visual poetry, music, as opposed to story.

Lately I’ve begun to notice a range of other possible alternative contexts for examining my own practices which relate to cultural fixations with patriotism, religion, revolution, the male, real versus virtual, every artist’s favourite obsession (death), and collective consciousness versus individualism.

My way of working involves gathering materials, objects and ideas (including mathematical equations), creating something I may have to accept as overwhelming, cluttered and unresolved and then distilling from that a number of individual (effectively minimalist) works.

Micheál O'Connell