Since 1999 Deirdre Robb has been engaging in installation visual arts practice. She creates multi-sensory sculptural works that are site-specific in both gallery  and public environments. Robb aims to give the viewer an experience  to encourage dialouge and  debate within the work. The installations are inspired by themes of politics, feminism, transition and memory.

WOMB

WOMB

                   ‘What About The Tree’                                     live video performance

Robb  collaborated with artist Sinead O’Donnell and made a  live video performance on 12th July in East Belfast. The artists engaged the aftermath of an ‘Orange’ bonfire the morning after it was lit. Robb also created two installations, Womb and Remains that intregrated into the the space in the old Engine Room of the portview Mill.

Remains

Menopause

Deirdre Robb’s current work ‘MENOPAUSE’ is a research and development project that relates to the process of entering menopause. The work reveals both the emotional and physical changes that reflects the withdrawal symptoms of estrogen from a woman’s body. Artworks include sculptures, Installations, photography, drawings, video and performance work.

For more information https://wordpress.com/page/deirdrerobb.com/725

ECHOES

Creative exchange Artist Studios commissioned Deirdre Robb to create ECHOS, an outdoor light based installation and film projections in the Portview Trade Centre on the Newtownards Road. In her installations, Robb used the architectural elements of the old mill building – one of the few to successfully survive in Belfast – by highlighting its curves, functionality and shape.

                Mill LightInstallation

   Green_ Issues_ Installation

                                                                                                Green_ Issues_ Installation

Water Pollution Insatallation and Coloured rain  were part of Robb’s solo exhibition BLUE  in the Engine Room Gallery. Using river as a visual source Robb created a large body of works including installations. She drew on her relationship with water and her life experiences of engaging with it, including her cousin’s death by drowning, her fear of swimming, environmental issues, as well as its therapeutic and calming effects.

Coloured_Rain__installation_Fishing_Line_Resin_detail_Deirdre_Robb

The Frozen Installation was part of The Grasses project that was an international programme that took place in Belfast, Dublin and Kentucky. This work was one of the four projects that Deirdre Robb was involved with. The installation was presented in Artopia and was a collaboration with artists Suzanne Mitchell and Susan Gorsen. The artists made connections form both a female experience and the materiality of the female form.

SITTING COMFORTABLY

The Sitting comfortably Installation was part of The Grasses Project  that was an international visual art programme that took place in Belfast, Dublin and Kentucky. This work was one of the four projects that Deirdre Robb was involved with. The installation was the Waterfront Hall, Belfast and was a collaboration with artist Suzanne Mitchell. The artists combined  the female figure and politics of power relating to decision making.

4 FIELDS OF REFERENCE

‘4 Fields of Reference’ was a four person exhibition with Deirdre Robb, Ian Fleming, Bill Artt and Azatorie Artizone that took place in the Lagan Weir, Belfast (under the Lagan river) and was in the Cathedral Quarter Arts festival in 2009. Robb’s created 3 site-specific installations focused on the perception and duality of conflict of opposing elements ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ and reinforced this notion with Ice and Fire.

A SENSE OF PLACE

This series of works were a response to the changes that took place in East Belfast in 2000. The regeneration scheme created a sense of loss for Robb as it ripped through the streets demolishing homes and changing people’s lives forever. The Exhibition took place in the Engine Room Gallery.

Absence is Presence

This installation was in an old Lighting warehouse in Hector Street in Belfast before it was pulled down and is now where the MAC is located. The work explored family, memory and loss and made comment of the impressions we leave in people’s lives

Since 1999 Deirdre Robb has been engaging in installation based practice. She creates three-dimensional works that are site-specific in both internal and external environments. Robb aims to give the viewer an experience that is based on sensory sensations and includes themes of politics, feminism, transition and memory.

SWELL

Swell George Best Belfast City Airport

This sculpture ‘swell’ aimed to capture a transient moment when the flow of the water is reaching a peak and then suspended in mid-air almost like a frozen moment in time. Robb installed this work in main foyer of the George Best Belfast City Airport in September 2012 and was a highlight of the inaugural East Belfast Arts Festival. 

 SUPERHEROES

INSTALLATION WAS SITED IN BLUE MOUNTAIN, AUSTRALIA AS PART OF THE SCENIC WORLD SCULPTURAL FESTIVAL

Superheroes was a major installation as part of the international Scenic World Sculpture Festival  that took place in the Blue Mountains in Australia.  Robb created a series of wooden painted sculptures of iconic female superheroes to highlight the ‘femme’ and social identity that combines modern metropolitan influences with a patriarchal community. Robb states ‘These contradictions challenge the individuality and create strength yet interdependence as women push their own boundaries and comfort zones transcending into modern-day wonder women’.

 FREE CITY PUBLIC ART FESTIVAL, FLINT, MICHIGAN, USA

Robb was invited to participate in Free City Flint Public Art. Free City was a large-scale public art festival that temporarily reclaimed the former Flint-Chevy manufacturing site along the Flint River for public use. In 2013, more than 75 artists and organizations from the city, the region, and the country participated, including more than 20 from Flint, a dozen from southeast Michigan and the Great Lakes region, as well as international artists from Germany, Ireland, and Poland. The event attracted thousands of visitors from the region to activate the sprawling city-owned landscape at the curve of the Flint River. art festival that took place in an abandoned site that was previously the car plant that made Chevrolet’s in Flint Michigan. Robb created 2 installations ‘Art Flag Bunting” and ‘Wish Tree” in response relate to the post-industrial changes experienced in a community when industry collapses without replacement jobs and limited support to the community.

CITY 

 The work focuses on the growth of Belfast and how buildings and architecture connects with Belfast City life. The Installation is a metaphor for a city of change, forever looking both at the present and to the future.