I am a visual artist and art project organiser, working across media, with a focus more recently on film/video art. I tend to think now of my practice as a series of projects rather than producing objects for exhibition only. My work is often conceptually begun, and informed by my interest in the politics of collective space and civic life. In the form of interventions, videoworks, sound and performances, my work addresses local/global politics, private/public space, activism and use of language. My work is informed by socio-political subjects and relates specific/local experience to larger global phenomena.
My interventionist projects explore the boundaries between art and ‘real’ situations, and the presentation/framing of art. Previous work has employed diverse media including video, sound, installation, sculpture, photography, drawing, stitch and performance. The medium with which I choose to work is usually derived from and appropriate to the concept. The use of digital media is important in my work as it is easily reproduced, negating the fetishisation of the art object and allowing various audiences to engage with the work in different situations. I am interested in art as a way of activating thought and instigating interaction with the public realm, and see the artist as a critical and creative thinker, where thinking and imagining are ways of making.
Email: teeobee@yahoo.co.uk
Mosquito Bites
DVD 11 mins 27 secs
This film explores the politics of public and private space, consumerism and community, through interviews focusing on the ultrasonic device known as the 'mosquito", a device that emits an extremely irritating sound at a high enough, frequency so that older adults, whose hearing is less acute as they age,cannot hear it. Two machines have been installed in Rory Gallagher Square in Cork by the management of Paul St. Shopping Centre as a 'deterrent' against teenagers gathering in the square. The arguments and opinions eventually become overwhelmed by the growing pitch of the frequency, altered for the film so that all can hear it.
Concept: Treasa O’Brien
Producer/DirectorEditor: Treasa O’Brien
Editing assistance: Tony Murphy
Superlative Tourism
DVD, video and sound installation, 3mins 22s, 2005/2008
This footage was shot at the world famous Iguazu Falls, a series of impressive waterfalls situated at the borders between the three South American countries: Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. To view the falls in their entirety, one must leave the park and pass through border controls to enter via the other country. The tourist ‘experience’ is mediated carefully by the authorities so that each person must adhere to the constructed walkway, punctuated with shops, cafes and chosen viewing points. In these three video sequences, we see the framing of the landscape as a consumable ‘experience’, as each tourist takes photos making sure to edit out the walkways and hordes of other tourists to ensure an ‘authentic’ recording. In my footage, the landscape picture frames are the elevator window, the shop window, the computer screen and the postcard.
Ideally this work should be experienced as a 3-channel video installation in its own room with surround sound.
Concept: Treasa O’Brien
Producer/Director/Camera/Editor: Treasa O’Brien
One Minute Cricket
DVD, 1min 21s, 2005/2008
A street kid in a petrol station in Managua, Nicaragua rises to the challenge of making a grass cricket in under one minute. In the background are advertisements for BMW and mobile phones; the kid hangs around the petrol station making these crafts and selling them to petrol buyers for one cordoba (about 10 cents).
Concept: Treasa O’Brien
Producer/Director/Camera/Editor: Treasa O’Brien
Bouncing Moon
DVD, 2mins 48s, 2006
It was simultaneously dawn and moonlight in Humahuaca, Argentina. The digital video camera I had could not take the shot the way I had intended due to its limitations outside of natural daylight. So the limitations of the inferior digital video camera becomes the material that dictates the form. It is all shot in one go without any post-editing, so that after the camera zooms in from the landscape, the moon becomes an abstract entity in itself, and it is the camera that really becomes the subject.
Concept: Treasa O’Brien
Producer/Director/Camera/Editor: Treasa O’Brien
Music: ‘Nannou’ by Aphex Twin