new artist in residence

Dublin based artist Deirdre Harte with ‘Fatal, Faceless, Fashion Fascination’ will be our next artist in residence here in Kilkenny County Council Arts Office, no. 76 John Street. She will commence her time here on Monday 18th October and will continue to work on site until the week of December 10th.

Deirdre graduated from The National College of Art and Design in June 2008 with an honors degree in Textile Design.

The primary focus for her final year of study was in ethical fashion. Ethical fashion represents for her an approach to the design, sourcing and manufacture of clothing, which is both socially and environmentally responsible. Clever inventiveness is at the core of this design ethos. She tastefully reconstructs old ideas into new silhouettes that can relate to the wearer today. She brings new life to old clothing creating a new modern edginess for womenswear; her silhouettes capture, the love of the uniqueness and ‘one- off’ quality that only comes from being hand sourced and handmade.

Deirdre was the winner of the ‘Totally Oxfam’ design competition run by Re-dress for the first ever Dublin Ethical Fashion week in April 2008, She was a finalist in The Nokia Young Designer of the Year in February 2008. She also holds a Diploma in Fashion from the Limerick School of Art and Design.

Deirdre will primarily work with traditional handcrafts of knitting and crochet and hand stitch, combined with tailoring. Using innovative material combined with these traditional ideas form the connective tissue for this work, and in doing so push the boundaries between art and fashion, exploring these ideas through finishing, texture, function and silhouette. Making the non precious, precious.

She will consider the associated emotions that surround the desire to accumulate, by exploring ideas of weight and weightlessness on the body through the vehicle of fashion, referencing tribal cultures of Irish tradition, drawing inspiration from the Irish legend of Dullahan, the headless horseman.