Ailish MacDonald

Ailish MacDonald is a Glasgow based multi-media artist whose practise has moved in the direction of photography and mixed media based work. A big interest of MacDonald’s lies in the use of film photography, specifically in relation to capturing the body and the idea of identity in an unusual, and sometimes abstract, way – the body being something more than the biological shell in which we inhabit. Exploring the idea of the properties of humanity and person-hood, MacDonald’s work takes on a conceptual form marrying different elements such as printmaking, photography and wax sculpture to enable her to create ‘collections’ of work in curated spaces as well as stand alone ‘pieces’. Drawing influence from philosophers such as Carl Jung and his idea of ‘individuation’, and artists such as John Coplans and Robert Rauschenberg’s ‘combine’ works, MacDonald doesn’t aim to provide answers to the question of what it means to be human but rather create an open dialogue to allow the viewer to come to their own conclusions. Through re-purposing found objects and materials such as leather, metals and plastics MacDonald explores the properties of these materials and their symbolism in the ever moving digital based world.