Rachaelflynn

Rachael Elizabeth Flynn

Artist/Researcher/Educator

Education

University of the West of Scotland (UWS), Scottish Centre for Island Studies, School of Media, Culture and Society, PhD Research Student and Associate Lecturer

Goldsmiths, University of London, Masters, Alumna

University of Dundee, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, Fine Art Alumna

PhD Research

“Releasing/Realising her story”: 

A family story of migration released and realised through a journey of creative practice. 

My current research marks the completion of a journey of exploration and investigation, framed through a series of encounters with both personal and collective pasts, through shifts and bridges of memory, place and time, and significantly through narratives of migration and diaspora. In making this journey as artist-researcher I have undergone a process of coming to terms  with the layers of my own identity, as an artist undertaking doctoral research ever while reconnecting with the narratives buried within a set of familial stories. Although my creative practice was initially positioned as a methodology through which to explore a research topic, it became evident that through the research I was in tandem encountering questions and providing a commentary regards how my artistic practice stands as that which reveals one’s sense of self. It became a journey bridging both shared and paralleled histories whilst providing and resulting in a particular set of self-reflexive responses which allowed a deeper understanding of how associations with my family history have manifested as drivers within my creative practice. With the cyclical nature of this constant feeding into each other, practice and self counselled back and forth with concurrent influence, obscuring any sense of one leading the other. Through this I engaged, interpreted, developed and understood these stories and histories – and the wider contexts involved – on a deeper and more involved level. Through conceiving and identifying how my practice facilitates such, and provides a means of entry for such journey, this study as artist-researcher, stands as contribution in understanding and framing this experience of ‘release and realisation’ facilitated through creative practice during this exploration of a family story of migration and diaspora.

Articles

Honouring Irish Women of Our Past: Q&A With Artist Rachael Flynn

Creative Industries Experience

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External Links

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