Dorothy Hunter
I am a research-based artist who frequently works with ideas of place through temporal markings, the political shaping of space, and awkward aftermaths, in-betweens and prior moments. Using a mix of “documentative” media and more abstracting processes in installations, I examine time’s use as a political tool in the planning of contentious space, and its handling in the culture and heritage industries. I’m particularly interested in sites where understandings of time and ownership clash in little-seen or understood places. Temporality and railroaded futures can be questioned through such places, where their logic breaks down or is momentarily visible.
One current research project explores the UNESCO Cuilcagh Lakelands geopark on the Fermanagh/Cavan border and the impact of (mostly undiscovered) underground space in its extensive cave network. At this site, two states meet in the care and branding of inhabited land, all overseen by an extra-state body. I am interested in the potential of constantly opening and closing spaces, their cartography, and complications of conventional human framing of the world, where it frustrates property and state-based understandings of land.
Education and Qualifications
2018-20
MA Art Praxis
Dutch Art Institute
2018
MA Art in the Contemporary World
National College of Art and Design, Dublin
Distinction
June 2011
University College Falmouth
BA (Hons) Fine Art
1:1
Recent Exhibitions
2024/25
Borders
RUA RED, Dublin
2024
Strata
CCA Derry-Londonderry
mother tongue
The MAC, Belfast
Betwixt: Beneath
Freelands Foundation Artist Programme Exhibition
The Crypt, London
2023
fully conscious movements, fully different time
solo show, Golden Thread Gallery, London
Gintlíocht
Ulster Folk Museum, Cultra
2022
UPHOLD edition commission and exhibition
Household, 35 DP, Belfast
2020
There is no Image, there is no time. There is only you inhabiting all dimensions
DAI COOP summit (group event), Damp Coolth (solo event)
Radio Kootwijk, The Netherlands
2019
Anticipated Fictions; Monumental Configurations
Solo show, 126 Artist-Run Gallery, Galway
The Landis Museum
CCA Derry~Londonderry
2017
Dissolving Histories: A Moment in Time
Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast
Anticipated Fictions; Monumental Configurations
Solo show, PS Squared, Belfast
2016
Still (The) Barbarians
EVA International, Irish Biennale, Limerick
Awards/Funding
Freelands Artist Programme, 2022-24
General Arts Award, Arts Council NI, 2023.
Artist Career Enhancement Scheme, Arts Council NI, 2022-23.
School of Visual Culture Scholarship, NCAD, 2017/18
General Arts Award, Arts Council NI, 2016
Recipient of Production CCA award, 2013
RECENT Experience and Residencies
2020-Present
Co-editor of Critical Bastards, an Irish publication of art and art writing.
2022-23
Part of the Northern Irish cohort for “Written by Us, Not About Us”, a collaborative support programme with the Northern Irish Art Network and African Artists' Foundation.
2023
Residency at Digital Arts Studios, Belfast.
2012- Present
Freelance art critic, contributing to Photomonitor webzine, the International Sculpture Centre Blog, Visual Artists’ News Sheet. Gallery publications at Catalyst Arts, Centre for Contemporary Art Derry/Londonderry (edited by PVA Journal), and Ulster University Art Gallery
2019
Researcher for Project Arts Centre, Dublin's "Active Archive, Slow institution: The Long Goodbye"
April 2015
Art Critic in Residence at Studio Das Weisse Haus, Vienna, in conjunction with Der Standard, a national daily newspaper
Press
Colin Darke, Dissolving Histories: A Moment in Time, CIRCA, 1st February 2018 https://circaartmagazine.net/dissolving-histories-a-moment-in-time
Gemma Tipton, EVA International 2016, Frieze, Issue 180 June – August 2016 https://frieze.com/article/eva-international-2016
Aoife Rosenmeyer, EVA International: “Still (The) Barbarians”. Art Agenda, April 25th 2016. http://www.art-agenda.com/reviews/eva-international-“still-the-barbarians
Helping Artists Keep Going
Axis is an artist-led charity supporting contemporary visual artists with resources, connection, and visibility.