“As a result of an application I made for funding (with the help of Mark) I had a series of 5 mentoring sessions with Mark Devereux Projects, including an in person studio visit. The process of talking, listening and working though various exercises was truly transformative. We worked on strengthening my artist voice – finding the vocabulary and clarity to be able to talk about my work in a meaningful and succinct way. Mark very quickly identified parts of my practice such as writing and words that I hadn’t given much thought to in the work itself and have now have become a clear and central strand in my practice.
Mark comes up with fantastic ideas about ways to curate, install and combine different works which are so inspiring – it felt brilliant to hear someone talk with such enthusiasm about my work. The sessions have given me such confidence and I am thinking about my next project with so much more strategy, expansion and collaboration in mind.”
Further information
Elina Medley’s art practice draws together the intricate patterns of everyday life with nature’s cyclical rhythms to explore memory, domesticity, and the passing of time. The shifting seasons, light, and shadow shape her visual language; morning sun on discarded cereal bowls, autumn rays through a canopy of leaves, the flat tones of a grey January day. Like the cycles of nature, the family home, forever in flux, is central to Medley’s work. She documents the endless rotations of household tasks, collects debris and records the noise and stillness within the house. The rhythms of daily life become materials in her work, transforming the domestic into a site of reflection which is at once intimate and uncanny.
In the spirit of economy as well as personal storytelling Medley is a constant presence in the work, both behind and in front of the camera, easel or microphone. She appears as a live presence in the gallery, charcoal self-portrait, a voice listing daily tasks, a figure lying in tall grass. Through her body in relation to the landscape Medley explores her maternal Finnish heritage, drawing on past experiences of love and loss.
Using idiosyncratic and ordinary details, Medley taps into broader feminist issues of domestic labour and ecological matters concerning waste and altering seasonal patterns. With curiosity and tenderness she invites viewers to pause, notice and reimagine the world around them.
In 2015, Elina Medley was awarded an a-n Artist Bursary for professional development. Since returning to her practice four years ago, after a decade-long hiatus to teach and care for children, her work has been exhibited nationally, including at Fringe Arts Bath, Belfast, London, and Southampton. After earning a MA in Photography (Distinction), Medley’s films have been screened at festivals in New York, London, and Iceland, where she was shortlisted for Film of the Festival. She also holds a Fine Art degree from Ulster University, after which she was awarded a solo show at Context Gallery, Derry, and received funding from Arts Council Ireland.