Andrew Kearney/ Artist

Andrew Kearney's four decades of art practice is characterized by its exploration of everyday phenomena, queer culture, a world of communities under surveillance. His installations emphasize the mediating role of the work within the space it inhabits. The works serve as disturbances, presenting themselves as incidents as much as physical objects, and in doing so, they reveal numerous underlying and unfolding narratives.

Kearney's artistic process incorporates various mediums, including sound, lighting, sculpture, photography and ceramic creating multiple modular components all within the installation, along with a range of technologies. This diversity allows for unpredictable rhythms and brings an ephemeral quality to the human aspects of the artwork. He often utilizes external microphones, GoPro cameras, or video cameras to collect live data. Merging this data with the manipulation of light, colour and sound to create a new synthesis within the installation space, blurring the boundaries between the familiar and the unfamiliar.

His work is also influenced by ideas of modernity, human exploration of outer space and the impact of space technology and science fiction on our daily lives. Dystopian concepts and synthetic materials are recurrent themes, alluding to contemporary industrial processes, sites of production, systematic surveillance, and data collection. This sense of otherness is a constant reference in Kearney's work, symbolizing a journey beyond oneself or towards the unknown, that counteracts the historical context of the environment where the artwork is presented, involving the audience as their movement triggers a compositional shift in light or sound, prompting them to reassess their own relationships with the narratives presented.

Kearney's art spans vastly different scales, from the intimate to the monumental, and each intervention offers a unique perspective on how these artworks coexist with their respective spaces. They have the ability to alter the flow of visitors within these environments, rekindling and bringing to life memories, real or imagined, desires and/or dreams. His work invites viewers to engage with the art on multiple levels and to reflect on the complex narratives embedded within.