XV. Biography

 

Alasdair Asmussen Doyle’s practice employs moving-image and filmic heritage to navigate multiple relations of physical places and films. Combining contemporary theories of landscape with early shooting instruments, the artist creates works that negotiate hybrid geographical positions. In drawing upon narratives that span time and place, his films and installations conceptualise spaces as fragmented and in continual flux.

 

Concurrent projects are partly informed by his experience as an Australian inhabiting another island on the other side of the globe. These seek to address potentialities of dislocation and duality — a being here and there in place —, and include, 'Saw in half', a project documenting  the translation of botanical material and knowledge between Malahide, Tasmania and Malahide, Ireland, 'The Other Island', a series of works centered on the colony of wallabies that inhabit the Isle of Man, 'Where I Am Not', an expedition inspired by reaching the point opposite the artist’s birthplace, and ‘Into the silent sea’, a project charting St. Kilda’s lineage on the other side of the world.

 

Born in 1989 in Adelaide, Alasdair holds an MFA at the Royal College of Art, London (2018) and a BFA/BA at the University of Tasmania, Hobart (2015). His work has been shown at spaces such as Casino Luxembourg, Luxembourg; Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda; Void Gallery, Northern Ireland; The Serving Library, Liverpool; Leave of Absence (LOA), London; Galerie Martine Aboucaya, Paris; Meat Markets, Melbourne; and has undertaken residencies at An Lanntair, Outer Hebrides; the British School of Rome, Rome; La Cite des Arts, Paris and Popp’s Packing, Detroit. He is the winner of the 2015 Tasmanian Portraiture Prize, runner-up of the 2020 Janet Mullarney Art Prize and has been supported through Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Arts Tasmania, Australia Council, Creative Partnerships Australia, Hobart City, Freelands Foundation, Future Screens Northern Ireland, Northern Bridge Consortium, Royal College of Arts, Tasmanian Regional Arts and Ulster University funding. He has led workshops and tutorials, including most recently on 16mm filmmaking at the Royal College of Art in London and ‘Filmic Mapping’ at the Belfast School of Art, and curated screenings of international artist moving image work.

 

Alasdair lives and works between Belfast and Brussels, where he is currently undertaking a PhD at the Belfast School of Art, in partnership with aemi (Dublin). His research has been featured in 'Between Matter and Words' (2022), 'Intersections Journal' (2022), and 'KUA' (2023).