Local artist to exhibit artwork in celebration of Earth Day

Local artist Mimi Seery will exhibit her artwork at Athlone Civic Centre green this Friday.

The artwork will be on display in Athlone to celebrate Earth Day this Friday and will remain on site until May 23.

The art installation entitled 'I See You' is inspired by the African philosophy of Ubuntu. The title of the work is linked into the idea that once we truly see someone, they become real. The less we see ourselves as individuals, the more we see humanity as a whole.

The philosophy of Ubuntu comes from the realisation that each and everyone’s life is deeply tied to the other and the choice to use personal power to commit to the common good, as opposed to creating isolated individual good.

The installation consists of a mirror shaped in the silhouette of a human form based on Mimi's form with a hand raised in greeting. It is fixed flat on the green area, immersed in the grass surrounding it.

According to Mimi, public interaction with the work is key to its completion. "To see oneself reflected in a mirrored silhouette of another human being not only connects us with the artwork, but to ourselves." "Inside this mirror image we see more elements that we are connected to, the sky above us, and the earth beneath us. It intends to encourage a reconnection with ourselves, with each other and with nature by viewing all these elements as part of a whole."

Mimi is a multimedia artist working in the mediums of paint, photography and mixed media. She wishes to encourage other artists to join in with her artwork, which aims to highlight art in Athlone and the growth of public art more generally.

In 2018, she received the ICAD Upstarts award for rising Artists/Designers in Ireland. Her work has featured in exhibitions in Sligo, Dublin, Galway and Athlone.

Mimi is one of the artists in residence at Abbey Road artist studios in Athlone. After attaining a BA in Fine Art in Sligo IT she travelled extensively through Asia to experience the diversities and commonalities between western and eastern cultures.

Upon her return she went on to study Graphic Design at BCFE with a purpose in particular to study advertising and the principles of how the subject uses psychology for persuasion. Her work utilises the same principles in advertising to diffuse insecurities instated by advertising media to provoke a response of self realization and reconnection with the environment.