About
StudioMA_hon
#ceramics #clay #bones #ecology #movement
Gail Mahon stands at the fascinating intersection of art, science, and the human experience, carving a niche as an artist and creative research-practitioner specialising in the dynamic interplay between ceramic and bone materials within movement ecology. Based along the stunning Causeway Coast of Northern Ireland, Mahon’s work is a profound exploration of the connections between clay, the human body, and the natural world.
A PhD researcher at Ulster University, Mahon is also a Movement Educator grounded in Natural Movement and Ecosomatic Practice, an innovative approach that emphasises mindful, whole-body human patterns and interactions that are both intuitive and playfully responsive to diverse environments. Her unique blend of artistic and scientific inquiry delves deeply into how movement, materials, and health are interwoven within expansive ecosystems, where clay and ceramic mineralogy serve as lenses to envision our interconnected and embodied futures and communities.
Mahon’s studio practice is a journey through time and material, investigating the links between bone health, sedentary culture, and climate urgencies. Her research in bioarchaeology, biomechanics, and bioceramic engineering maps the shifts within our skeletal systems, influenced by the movement and mineral interactions that echo the properties of clay and ceramics. This intricate dance of porosity and plasticity, mirrored in ancient human history, forms the backbone of her work, particularly her studies on the living practices of Hunter-Gatherers in Ireland during the late Mesolithic period.
Throughout her creative works, Mahon blurs the boundaries between art, life, nature, and culture. Her drawings, collages, and textural images capture active processes, culminating in installations, performances, photography, films, and sensory environments. These compositions, featuring both hard and soft elements, residues of temporary and permanent states, illustrate the unseen material agency and animacy of anatomy and physiology. By drawing timelines across multiple histories, Mahon raises awareness of living in a more-than-human world, exposing how deeply rooted skeletal health is changing at both micro and macro scales through human movement ecology which is the study of natural, functional movements in diverse environments.
Mahon’s works can be seen as 'self-archaeology' experiments, activating deep nervous system responses to the transformations embedded in her work. Her practices in natural movement, improvisation, and strength training provide a direct kinaesthetic understanding of forces, bodies in motion, and the bioactive materials of our anatomy. This hands-on approach allows her to embody the concepts she explores, creating a profound resonance between her artistic practice and scientific research.
Mahon’s journey through the world of clay and ceramics has been one of continuous evolution, requiring time, experience, and patience to unravel the complex social concerns that shape human behaviour and actions. Her practice is a process of making and unmaking, learning and unlearning, as she navigates the inherited responses and urgent adaptations within our socialised skeletons. Through her work, Gail Mahon not only contributes to the fields of art, but extends links to science and culture inviting us to reconsider our embodied existence in critically tenuous relationships with the natural world.
Background
Currently in position as practice-based Ph.D. Researcher with Ulster University, (2023). Awarded the Northern Bridge Doctoral Scholarship (AHRC) partnered with Durham Univeristy. A graduate of the Royal College of Art, Master in Ceramics & Glass, Mahon has developed practices through residencies or creative responses to site-specific locations in the UK, Italy, and Ireland. A close working relationship with arts organisation, Art Arcadia, as A-I-R in 2016, 2018, 2023 has supported her approach to exploring scale and performance development. A recipient of a residency at Leitrim Sculpture Centre, 2021, with sound artist Aengus Friel Lawrence, producing ‘Haptic Oscillations’ film and live performance event for Culture Night 2021. Gail is also currently a board member for ECHO ECHO Dance Theatre Company, a professional dance, and movement company based in Derry City, where she had previously performed as part of their festivals and commissioned projects.
Gail has been an invited speaker and teacher at several UK and Ireland universities, Ulster University, NUI Galway, and QUB Belfast, bringing the roles of Artist, Educator, and Cultural Producer together to discuss collaboration as a key transformation in her creative practice.
The founder of the CAAKE project - a collaborative art project in Northern Ireland, (2016-2020) helped to shape her socially engaged practice and current research which aims to develop collaborative residencies, partnerships, and public participation in workshops and events as adaptive learning situations underpinned and incited by LIVING ART + ART OF LIVING.
A vision of cultural changes is hidden in plain sight of our movement ecology, as interactions around labour, technology, and consumption. Her work will take an Ecosomatic position that reviews the complexity of our health in the simplest terms of revitalised communities’ people and our natural ecology. Programmes in public engagement are being developed inside the context of her PhD studies via- THE CLAY GYMNASIUM.
studioMA_hon // THE CLAY GYMNASIUM
LIVING ART + ART of LIVING