Cavan Arts Office will host boredomresearch in the Cavan Burren and the Marble Arch Caves UNESCO Global Geopark for the River Residencies curated by Ormston House. boredomresearch is a collaboration between British artists Vicky Isley and Paul Smith. Inspired by natural environments, collectively they create artworks that explore the diversity that exists in nature and more recently the fragility of these ecosystems.

boredomresearch has been collaborating with world-leading science institutions since 2014, creating award-winning artwork, including projects exploring: natural systems, biodiversity, critically endangered and extinct species, environmental conservation, and human and animal diseases. Fascinated by human interaction with landscape, their artwork brings together innovative science, creative use of digital technology and a deep understanding of the complex interplay between human culture and natural systems.

Their artwork, AfterGlow, won the 2016 Lumen Prize award which celebrates the very best art created with technology. Their latest project, In Search of Chemozoa (2020), created in collaboration with Arizona Cancer Evolution Center, presents a poetic rendering of a fictional model organism called Chemozoa; the artwork responds to mythical creatures documented in scientific literature to reveal tensions and interconnections between human and planetary health. 

The artworks of boredomresearch are in collections around the world including the British Council, Southampton City Art Gallery, and Borusan Contemporary Art Collection, Turkey. boredomresearch projects have been exhibited worldwide including: ArtScience Museum, Singapore; BOZAR, Belgium; QUAD Gallery, UK; DAM Gallery, Germany; House of Electronic Arts, Switzerland; KUMU Art Museum, Estonia; LABoral Centro de Arte y Creacion Industrial, Spain; Gwacheon National Science Museum Seoul and Today Art Museum, China.

The River Residencies are co-funded by the Arts Council’s An Invitation to Collaboration scheme, led by Limerick Culture & Arts Office in partnership with the Arts Offices in Cavan, Clare and Tipperary. The River Residencies are part of the Museum of Mythological Water Beasts (2017-), a multi-year project about, along and on the River Shannon curated by Ormston House.

Image: detail from In Search of Chemozoa (2020) by boredomresearch, courtesy of the artists.