Artists Statement – Shane Vaughan
Shane Vaughan is a multi-disciplinary experimental artist working in lens-art and letters. His work explores ideas of performance, selfhood, truth, and identity. Drawn to Dada, German Expressionist Film and Silent Cinema, his work is disquieting and surreal.
Living in Limerick over the last decade, he has worked as an artist, a teacher, freelance videographer and photographer, editor, and events organiser. As director of the poetry and arts event Stanzas he held over sixty events and ran several annual festivals (2015-2019). Through his freelance work, he has created numerous videos for artists and arts organisations locally and nationally, including Dance Limerick, Iseli Chiodi Dance Company, Tipperary Dance Platform, Limerick Youth Dance Company, Limerick Youth Theatre, Helium Arts, Fresh Film Festival, Opera Workshop, Irish Chamber Orchestra, RTE Orchestras, Scottish Recorder Orchestra and the Arts Council Ireland.
His written work has been published online and in print, and his works for theatre performed at the Cork School of Music (2011, 2012) and the Cork Arts Theatre (2013) His photography and videography have been exhibited both nationally and internationally, most recently at K-Fest (2019), Noorderlicht Photo Festival (2020) and the Cork Indie Film Festival (2020).
Through mise-en-scene his films explore the poetics of performance and silent film, as seen in ‘The Little Red Train’, ‘Mirrors & Images’, and ‘Church of Nine Eyes’. His short performance work, ‘This Mortal Flesh’ explores themes of Ageing and the Body, and his latest work ‘That Which Devours You’ is a montage tone poem. Performed in Ormston House, 2021, the work tackles themes of omens, spirituality, and abjection.