Institute of Art Design + Technology
Dún Laoghaire

Patrick Fitzsimons 

BA [Hons] Art

Pat Fitzsimons grew up in Finglas, Dublin in a time when this was an area of open green fields. It was a time of exploring with friends, swimming and fishing in the rivers, chasing pheasants from field to field, finding bird’s nests in high grass, climbing trees, picking blackberries. Pat returned to education as a mature student with his love for the natural world becoming a resource for his art. Pat has exhibited in IADT group shows such as Stable IMMAges (IMMA, 2016) and High Heart (Pallas Projects/Studios, 2021) and was awarded a 1916 Leader’s and Learner’s Bursary in 2017-18.

Ephemeral Art

My project explores how things do not last and are ephemeral. This brings me down many avenues of exploring temporary phenomenon in the natural environment such as erosion, decay and small happenings. What draws me to the concept of the transitory is the fact that we cannot control phenomena, cannot make the impermanent permanent. I experiment with materials and processes such as ice, wind flows, river flows, fire, smoke, decay, melting and the burst of bubbles. My work attempts to catch what I call ‘the Ephemeral Effect’. I am interested in when something happens and leaves a trace, pointing towards the duration of the object. I experiment with light, reflections and colours to record unpredictable effects at the moment when ice might melt or a bubble might burst. I present my work in multiple forms; through the image, through recording temporal movement and through physical objects and situations of experimentation.