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Elaine Harrington is an Irish ceramic artist based in Dublin. She is a graduate of the Design & Crafts Council Ireland’s Ceramics Skills & Design Course, and holds an MA in Ceramics from Cardiff School of Art & Design (UK) and an MSc in Interactive Digital Media from Trinity College Dublin. She has exhibited nationally & internationally, and received funding & awards from the Arts Council of Ireland, Creative Ireland, Creative Europe MEDIA, and DCCI FutureMakers, and most recently was selected for DCCI’s Portfolio 2021-2022 and shortlisted for the International KOGEI Award in Toyama 2020 (JP).

She was the 2018-20 Parity Studios Artist-in-Residence at UCD College of Science (IRL), exploring geoscience and the transformation of earth materials in ceramics, and ecology of making in material practice. Previous residencies include Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Centre (DK), TorinoFilmLab (ITA, FRA, FIN), the Tyrone Guthrie Centre (IRL), Road Book’s Garravagh Eco-Project (IRL), and the Scottish Sculpture Workshop (UK).

She has worked on numerous collaborative art, education and public engagement projects and commissions, and recent projects include an archaeological and contemporary ceramics skills-sharing and research initiative with UCD Centre for Experimental Archaeology & Material Research (CEAMC) supported by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council and Creative Ireland, and a collaborative geoscience engagement through art project developed with the Irish Centre for Research in Applied Geosciences (iCRAG).

Ongoing research explores the mining & mineral heritage of Ireland, and investigates tailings, waste and byproducts from excavation & extraction industries for use in ceramics processes, and bio colour & native pigments for ceramics & printmaking. Current projects include the continuing Place : Making interdisciplinary project – a creative exploration of our connection to landscape through the journey of making, from material to object, food to table, process to ritual, and how communities evolve through shared activity and resource networks.

She is currently developing an interdisciplinary art, music & geology project exploring deep time & place-making, to create a series of collaborative, site-responsive works for public performance and installation in 2022-23, supported by the Arts Council and iCRAG.

Elaine Harrington, Meander and Journey & Return, Material Conversations, Wexford, Wicklow, Achill Island, Mayo, Autumn 2020. Ceramic: stoneware and native clay with bog iron, amethyst, quartz, quartzite, granite and other felsic rock, and pine, peat, bovine and ovine bone ash glazes over native clay, old red sandstone and bog iron slips.
Elaine Harrington, Meander and Journey & Return, Material Conversations, Wexford, Wicklow, Achill Island, Mayo, Autumn 2020. Ceramic: stoneware and native clay with bog iron, amethyst, quartz, quartzite, granite and other felsic rock, and pine, peat, bovine and ovine bone ash glazes over native clay, old red sandstone and bog iron slips.
Elaine Harrington, Blue Road, Material Conversations, Dublin, Wicklow | Winter 2020. Ceramic: stoneware and wild clay with granite, quartz, and birch & bone ash glaze over wild clay and yellow ochre slip.
Elaine Harrington, Blue Road, Material Conversations, Dublin, Wicklow | Winter 2020. Ceramic: stoneware and wild clay with granite, quartz, and birch & bone ash glaze over wild clay and yellow ochre slip.
Elaine Harrington, Stonework series, Material Conversations, The Burren, Clare, Summer 2019. Ceramic: stoneware and native clay with feldspar, quartz, limestone, shale, siltstone, metal oxides and seashell glaze.
Elaine Harrington, Stonework series, Material Conversations, The Burren, Clare, Summer 2019. Ceramic: stoneware and native clay with feldspar, quartz, limestone, shale, siltstone, metal oxides and seashell glaze.
Elaine Harrington, MATERIAL CONVERSATIONS is a continuing series of works exploring embodied landscape, using native, local materials to create multi-layered responses to place. Rocks, minerals, clays, and ashes from trees, plants and animal bones are gathered to create site-specific material documents of the landscape, reflecting both the seasonal changes, human impacts, and underlying geology of an area.
Elaine Harrington, MATERIAL CONVERSATIONS is a continuing series of works exploring embodied landscape, using native, local materials to create multi-layered responses to place. Rocks, minerals, clays, and ashes from trees, plants and animal bones are gathered to create site-specific material documents of the landscape, reflecting both the seasonal changes, human impacts, and underlying geology of an area.
Elaine Harrington, Metamorphic Still, glaze surface detail: granite, quartz, mica schist and oak ash glaze, over native clay slip on stoneware & native clay.
Elaine Harrington, Metamorphic Still, glaze surface detail: granite, quartz, mica schist and oak ash glaze, over native clay slip on stoneware & native clay.

Past Residencies

2023

Landscape, Ecology & Environment Research Residencies

4 Plein Air Cn G 2017 BOTANICS Glasgow GP010288good3