Question of Taste: Cork-based artist Kate McElroy picks her favourite music and exhibitions

Born in Limerick, Kate also includes Newgrange, Grace Weir and Kilkenny Arts Festival in her selections

Kate McElroy, artist.

Kate McElroy is a multidisciplinary artist from Limerick, currently based in Cork. She is a member of Sample-Studios and the artist collective Inter_Site, A graduate of Crawford College of Art and Design, Kate is also the Public Engagement artist in Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre.

Best recent book you've read: A Field Guide to Getting Lost, by Rebecca Solnit. Her writing style is so visual with an amazing ability to weave together different subjects in the most evocative way. It led me to deliberate attempts at getting lost!

Best recent film: A series of short films during Cork Film Festival. I went to an experimental film workshop by Lynne Sachs in the Crawford Art Gallery. She has a subtle, investigative approach to everyday encounters with layers of meaning in the films.

Best recent exhibition you’ve seen: ‘The City is Never Finished’ by Peter Power and a team of artists at Kilkenny Arts Festival, a multi-sensory and multimedia, site responsive, installation.

Best piece of music you’ve been listening to lately (new or old): I am addicted to this piano piece ‘Lambent Rag’ by Clarke, from the album Playground in a Lake. It starts out light and melodic and builds up to a crash.

First ever piece of art that really moved you: Thinking back to school.. I loved learning about the twentieth-century art movements and concepts and societal influences that informed them. ‘Der Blaue Reiter’ and ‘Die Brücke’ stood out for their expressive style. I didn’t visit my first art gallery until a little later so it was through books first.

The best exhibition you've ever seen (if you had to pick one!): The ones that have the most impact on me longterm are ones that leave me wanting to know more and that I can’t quite fully grasp at the time. So I return again and again and have to dig for more information. Work that I know there is intensive research gone into it and the show is just touching the surface. Nikolaus Gansterer, ‘Tracing (In) Tanglibles’, which I saw in Gallerie Krone in Vienna; and Grace Weir’s solo exhibition ‘3 different nights, recurring’ in IMMA are such examples.

TV viewing: I like Adam Curtis’s documentaries on YouTube for his collage-like approach to political history and sociology. I liked the Fantastic Fungi documentary on Netflix for showing the unseen, underground networks so visually.

Radio listening and/or podcasts: Debbie Millman ‘Design Matters’ podcast accompanies me to sleep sometimes. She has a very soothing voice and in depth interview style.

You're curating your dream exhibition – which three artists are on the bill, living or dead? I'm going to go for present day Irish artists creating site-responsive work across a Town/City. Choosing the following artists; ‘Inter_Site’, (an artist collective I'm a part of with Padraic Barrett, Deirdre Breen and Aoife Claffey) and with artists Peter Power and Kerry Guinan.

Your best/most famous celebrity encounter: I saw Francis Brennan crossing the road once!

You can portal back to any cultural event or art era – where, when, and why? Something ancient for a complete contrast of experience and understanding of a different way of life. Maybe the first winter solstice at Newgrange.

Newgrange. 

In your own life, have you been doing anything in particular in relation to climate change, biodiversity, etc? I try to use found objects and re-use elements a lot in my art practice. This is both an anti-consumerism act and I am using materials that have a history embedded in them. For instance, I made an installation before using sheets of old glass, I found them being thrown out in places around Cork City and my Dad had amassed glass from old windows throughout the years. He is very much anti-waste and squirrels things away for years. We have become very anti-clutter but I think there is something important about valuing objects and materials. It also leads you to being more resourceful when thinking of creative solutions, how can I use what I have rather than buying anew.

In the education work I do I try to embed a sustainable ethos and often orient the workshops around nature and how art can be used as a tool to address issues such as climate change. Day to day, I move mostly on foot, eat largely plant-based, and I bring a flask everywhere I go!