Úna Kavanagh, Artist

Una is an embodiment of simply The Artist. She is best known as an actor in Ireland’s national soap opera, but her acting credits go far beyond TV. However, her heart lies in the art studio where she works alone creating sculpture and multimedia projects. Sculptor, writer, teacher, director and artistic collaborator… she does all this with professional grace and an incredible talent. She have studied with and inspirational teacher in Ballyfermot senior college and her portfolio was accepted to the National College of Art and Design where she moved straight into second year of a B.A. in craft design. “Once upon a time” is her largest exhibition to date and is the result of fifteen years work through a variety of mediums.

Professional female sculptors were almost unknown until the 20th century. Exceptions include Camille Claudel in France, who produced magnificent bronzes in the 1890s before being confined to a mental asylum in 1913, and the Irish sculptor, Mary Redmond, who won an open competition in Dublin in 1890 to sculpt a statue of Fr Theobald Mathew, the so-called ‘apostle of temperance’, pioneer of the abstinence movement. Ironically enough, when the statue was nearing completion, Redmond’s model arrived drunk and she had to dismiss him. In revenge, he returned at night and smashed the statue. Nothing daunted, Redmond started again and her monumental sculpture was unveiled before a huge crowd on 8 February 1893; it remains in place in O’Connell Street today. In the 20th century many of the great names in Irish sculpture were women: Rosamund Praeger, Melanie Le Broquy, Hilary Heron, Alexandra Wejchart, Imogen Stuart, Dorothy Cross.

Sculpture, once reserved to stone, wood or metal, is now very much a mixed media.

For her large-scale installation #imonlyhuman, Una Kavanagh, who counts Camille Claudel as an influence, uses a range of materials from cast bronze to film projection.

Photo: Beta Bajgart