Donoghue’s breathtaking work is comprised of a collection of large-scale gyclee prints, depicting a series of strikingly lit human/animal hybrids arranged in black space. These images, born from pencil drawings, are digital creations. Transferred from page to screen, constructed from photography and then manipulated. The final images possess a sense of magical reality, underpinned by the suggestion of something more sinister and foreboding.
Her work is inspired by stories that the artist has heard and events in her life that hold sway over her. It is a portrayal of desperate circumstances with unsettling and incalculable outcomes and in part pays homage to past writers, poets and musicians whose work has fuelled her imagination and inspired invention. Donoghue’s work explores a number of themes such as loneliness, abandonment, loss and punishment.
This exhibition will comprise new digital print work made from photographic scans, installation pieces that incorporate sound, video and animatronics, as well as original drawings. It is Donoghue’s first solo show since graduating from the Slade School of Fine Art in 2012 and so will showcase the evolution of her practice over the last few years.
I am interested in the power of strangeness. As a device I believe strangeness is as effective as horror or humour. In my work I like to explore this power, utilizing it to create surprising and unsettling pieces where boundaries blur, species merge and the dead can talk back. I like my work to be seductive yet unnerving at the same time. It is interesting to draw the viewer into a space and disarm them with the unexpected. There must always be a dark edge to the seduction. Beauty is important to me, but it is important in its relationship to the grotesque. Pure beauty is not so interesting as beauty that is infected and spoiled. There must be imperfection.