Intense work pays off for Cork artist Sorcha Browning

This has been a good year for Sorcha Browning, who recently graduated from the TU Dublin School of Creative Arts at Sherkin Island.

The Ballydehob native was recently awarded the prestigious RDS Taylor Art Award and the RDS and Graphic Studio Dublin Emerging Visiting Artist Award.

It’s the first time a Sherkin Island graduate has been shortlisted for the RDS Art Awards, testament to the importance of the BA course in the region.

Thrilled to have excelled at the award ceremony, Sorcha’s work is on show at the RHA Gallery in Dublin until January 18.

A multi-disciplinary artist spanning film, performance and sculpture, Sorcha won the Open Ear Graduate Award 2024, the National Sculpture Factory Residency Award 2024, and the Uillin Dance Studio Award 2024.

Sorcha’s latest award-winning installation, Eden, a nine-minute looped film displayed on two sculptural screens, is based on the constant online engagement that gets us hooked and addicted to the online world.

It refers to the mindless consumption of data as elicited from ‘cookies’, the small text files that websites store on your computer to remember information about you and your browsing activity.

While Sorcha says that cookies are “not necessarily harmful, I think the constant request to give away your data is”.

She points out that when a cookie pops up, the ‘reject’ option is “greyed out while the accept option is bright blue. The design of it is pulling you towards accepting.”

There is, she supposes, a consumerist element to it, with advertisers using the information as well as algorithms.

“You’re being funnelled into things you’re clicking on and you’re not being shown the rest so it can become a very biased experience. Where I see the negative side of this is in advertising and how social media feeds can divide people. There’s that divisive element which is harmful, and being pushed to buy something you don’t really need.”

For the film installation, Sorcha has made multiple characters (which are of herself performing).

“I didn’t want to offer a solution per se. I wanted to display (the work) as a painter so the viewer has some sort of agency over what the overall message and narrative is, through picking up on different references and gestures.”

As part of her research, Sorcha looks at the ‘gaze’.

“I looked at a lot of paintings and the representation of women, mostly how that affects how we act as we go about our everyday lives. I’m looking at our history and how it affects the way we think about gender roles and how we think about ourselves.”

Aged 27, Sorcha is a digital native and says she is au fait with technology.

“I like technology. I find it quite interesting to play with. I’m not afraid of technology although I’m aware it can be used negatively as well as positively.”

She says it’s worthwhile to think about our engagement online, how much we are online, and whether it’s benefiting us or not.

“It’s completely subjective and up to the person to think about it. For myself, I try not to ‘doom-scroll’. If I fall into it, it doesn’t feel positive when I complete it.”

Does she find excessive scrolling on social media dissatisfying?

“It’s almost designed like that with very short clips of video that really draw your attention but don’t satisfy you on a deeper level.”

Growing up in Ballydehob in an artistic household, Sorcha was encouraged to pursue the arts. Her father makes jewellery and her mother used to craft jewellery but now works as a painter.

Sorcha started dancing at the age of three; she also took up art classes and drama as a child. She is a past student of Alan Foley Academy of Dance at Uillinn, the West Cork Arts Centre.

While dancing was always a hobby growing up, Sorcha says it made her think about how the body moves, informing her art.

Before doing the BA on Sherkin Island, Sorcha studied film at St John’s Central College in Cork.

She started filming herself, doing various performances, on Sherkin.

Attendance on the island for the degree was mandatory, every second weekend.

“You went out there and had three days of intense learning. You come away from it and work at it at home. I liked that about the course.

“I also think the BA really set me up to be an artist outside of college. You have to find your own feet and figure out how to make art with limited resources. We were working out of a community hall on Sherkin Island. The community living there is lovely. They’re all very helpful.

“The degree show at the end kind of relies on them because the exhibition happens in multiple locations around the island.

“One of the students this year used a coal shed belonging to one of the islanders. I was using a space in a hostel there.”

Sorcha says that life on Sherkin “is very vibrant. There’s loads happening with coffee mornings in the community hall, drama workshops and poetry.”

Working at her art on the island has clearly been a happy – and fruitful – experience for Sorcha.

She says the RDS Taylor Art Award “has a long legacy in Ireland and being the recipient of it this year is such an honour. It means so much to me to have this support whilst transitioning from full-time study into professional practice and I am so grateful to all that are involved.”

Sorcha will take up the three-month residency she has been awarded at the National Sculpture Factory, starting in February, 2025.

The future looks bright for this West Cork artist.

Aisling Moran, of the Sherkin Island Development Society said that Sorcha’s success underscores the vital role BAVA Sherkin Island plays in shaping Ireland’s contemporary art scene.

“The programme, supported by Uillinn, West Cork Arts Centre, TU Dublin, and dedicated facilitators like Sherkin-based artist Majella O’Neill Collins and course coordinator Jesse Jones, is essential for fostering artistic innovation and sustaining Sherkin’s identity as the ‘Island of Artists’.

“With graduates like Sorcha Browning and Mary Sullivan - who won the RDS Taylor Art Award in 2018 - the course’s impact on Irish art is undeniable.

“We are also deeply grateful for the steadfast support of Billy Kemp, technician, Sinead McCormick, lecturer, and the ongoing unwavering support of Cork County Council, and the Department of Rural and Community Development’s Island Division, who continue to ensure the programme not only survives, but thrives on Sherkin Island.”