Joan Alexander
Joan Alexander is a research based artist living in Ballycastle, NI. Her work stems from experiments in shadow catching and light tracing to interrupt and imprint our experience of measured time. She is particularly interested in photography as a natural process that uses absences such as shadows, negatives and abstracts to record presence.
Currently Joan is using the life-cycle of plants as photographic process to develop her latest work Proof of Ghosts. Proof of Ghosts considers the experience of time that follows an ending. It began in 2019 when photography unintentionally became a process of grieving that allowed her to collect absence in a very physical way.
Joan has used a range of analogue and digital technology to collect and record ideas. Her work sits within the expanded field of photography and is often immersive, it is installed to show the working process. She will be using her residency at DAS to animate a catalogue of plant pigments gathered between spring-summer 2023, record a series of anthotype prints and develop sound within her work.
Joan studied Philosophy at Queens University of Belfast and the Institute of Philosophy KU Leuven before completing her Masters in photography at University of Brighton. Following her MA Joan’s work was awarded the Danny Wilson Memorial Award and published by Magenta Fast Forward. Her work has been supported by Arts Council NI and exhibited internationally. She is currently the recipient of an Artists Network bursary 2023.
Exhibitions include Fast/Slow/Fast at CCA Derry/LDerry, Through the Looking Glass with Lumen Collective, London, Proof of Ghosts at Belfast Exposed and Brighton Photo Fringe 2023.
Residency Period: August-November 2023
MIST