Saoirse Higgins

Saoirse Higgins (Dublin) is based on Papa Westray, Orkney Isles. She is interested in revealing the connections between technology, our vision of the world, and our expectations for the future. She explores the contested spaces of the Anthropocene and is particularly interested in islands and seas. Her video is a collage of time-lapse recordings from four compass points along the Papay shore made during her time as Embedded Artist in the Scottish Islands. Proposing Papay as a place from which to perceive environmental change differently, Higgins uses the international flag system to open channels of communication.

Higgins’s work is process-driven and she often collaborates with local experts and communities. Higgins has shown work at the Thessaloniki Biennale; Science Gallery, Dublin; Montreal Film and Media festival; Transmediale, Berlin; Siggraph, New Orleans; Exit Art and Location One gallery, New York. She has held residences at SIM, Iceland;Swatch Peace Art Hotel, Shanghai; e-Mobilart Lab, Disonancias in Spain; Location1 gallery in New York and the Banff Centre for the Arts. She is also co-founder of the ØY island festival exploring islands, art and culture.

Saoirse Higgins, ‘Survival Tools of the Anthropocene’ (still), 2019. Video, 49:52 min

Saoirse Higgins, Detail from ‘Pap-ØY-cene’, 2019. Digitally printed cotton drill flag. 127×127 cm.