2025
Exhibition Residencies
In my work I utilise a variety of methods, strategies and processes to mediate complex ideas associated with contemporary, historical and cultural readings of land use and resources. I see myself as a ‘citizen artist’ and try to build multilayered projects that communicate with a broad spectrum of audiences through the creation of small objects, drawings, texts and photographic images & public interventions. The intention is to generate discource about aspects of land management and the (often competing) sets of value placed on resources contained within landscapes.
Recent projects have focused on the socio political and cultural issues surrounding water, looking at local and global resonances of access, management, control and consumption of this finite substance as a global commons. Since moving to a rural context my work has become more involved in using sculpture and public interventions as a catalyst to re define spaces and definitions of social and cultural activities in contemporary contexts.
The project ‘Pearls of Rain’ takes as its starting point survival techniques of water gathering in arid landscapes. Using three systems of water collection the process based work attempted to ‘mine’ water from the desert environment. At a sacred site within the desert landscape I constructed a mobile structure that operated variously as a sculpture, as a site for discussion and exchange about the importance of water and as an object of redemption in the water stressed environment. Dew gathering failed in the dry atmosphere of the desert, rainwater harvesting was a slightly more successful collection system following some evening rain and the solar stills yielded almost 3 litres of water.
A solar powered fountain placed within the rainwater harvester mobile structure brought the sound of water to the desert environment.
The public interventions of the Paani Bachao poster are continually reconfigured and informed by the specifics of the location be it an academic forum, public street, water pumping station or artisan colony. The image for the Panni Bachao! poster was drawn by Orissan artist Kshitish Dass.
CountyImage from performative redemptive walk in mining town Lake City, located in San Juan Mountains in Southern Colorado, USA. The mining activity in this region has created water pollution into the water bodies of the region. From Hardrock Revision, a trans-disciplinary residency art science collaboration Symposium and think tank at the inactive Ute Ulay silver mine, Lake City, Colorado to revision future uses for the inactive mine site.
Drawing for Hardrock Revision, Idea to use redwood water tank at ute Ulay Silver mine reuse as camera obscura. This image will be reproduced in the forthcoming publication, Undermining by Lucy R. Lippard published by The New Press. USA. 2013.
Anna Macleod has participated in art events, symposia and conferences, public talks and exhibitions that examine the role of the artist in contemporary contexts. Most recently, ‘Troubling Ireland’ a street poster campaign and public talk in Liberty Hall, Dublin, ‘Hardrock Revision’. Trans-disciplinary collaboration to envisage new solutions for the inactive Ute Ulay Silver Mine, Lake City, Colorado, USA. ‘iSystems/systeMY’ International group exhibition, Galerie Imaginarium, Lodz, Poland. Curated by Mariusz Soltysik for Lodzki Dom Kultury. ‘The Future of Water’ Group exhibition Science Gallery, Trinity College, Dublin and Eyebeam, New York. and ‘Buddha Enlightened 2-be’ International residency and exhibition, Bodh Gaya, India. Curated by Diane Hagen and Sanjeev Sinha. Projects in 2012 include 2nd Land Art Biennial, Mongolia and Sculpture Quadrennial 2012, Riga, Latvia. Forthcoming shows include Troubling Ireland in Limerick City Gallery of Art in October 2013 curated by Helen Carey and a group show in The Mermaid Art Centre, Bray curated by Eiis Lavelle in April – May 2014. Anna Macleod is a lecturer in Fine Art Sculpture / Interdisciplinary Studies and Programme Chair of the Fine Art department at the Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland and completed an MA in Visual Art Practices through the Institute of Design, Art & Technology, IADT. 2009.
Past Residencies