A Rare Conversation with Audrey Blue

Audrey Blue (b.1998) is an Irish fine artist from Derry, Northern Ireland, based in Belfast, N.I. Her media include analog photography, painting, printmaking, and other experimental practices in film, embroidery, and textiles. Blue’s themes explore queerness, mortality, and conflict with youth and anxiety through her series, ' This Hurts.'’

Blue has been awarded Best Emerging Artist by the AVA festival, granting an artist feature in Dazed Digital. She was shortlisted for Vogue Talent 2019, where she met with Edward Enninful at Vogue House, coming in 2nd place. She won a public vote in ‘Fine Art/ Photography’ with i-D x Arts Thread’s Global Design Graduate Showcase 2020, was nominated by Photo Ireland to join the FUTURES Photography platform (2021 selection), and graduated in 2020 with first class honors in Fine Art BA Degree from Ulster University, Belfast School of Art. In early 2022 she became a selected artist to take part in 'New Irish Works' with Photo Ireland and throughout 2022, has exhibited her series ‘This Hurts’ in Crawford Gallery, Cork, and in Dublin Castle, as part of Photo Ireland Festival 2022 then also exhibited the series in Common Market, Belfast. Exhibitions later this year include ‘This Hurts’ at Belfast Exposed Gallery’s ‘Street View’ alongside Martin Parr’s exhibit ‘Parr’s Britain’ in the Preus Museum Norway with the exhibition ‘Queer Editions, Performing for the Camera.’ Her first Solo Show in London took place at Seen Fifteen Gallery with the multidisciplinary exhibit ‘This Hurts’ as part of ‘The Troubles Generation’ in Peckham, and Blue will start the coming new year with another solo exhibition at Photo Ireland as part of New Irish Works held in The Library Project, Dublin in February 2023.

Blue has been published in 52-Contaigion 2018 & 87-Not At Home 2022 by Abridged N.I, by WerkHaus #2 ‘Still life 2021, by Over journal (Photo Ireland) in 2021 and had her image ‘GINA’ featured as the cover of Anna Burns ‘Milkman’ French Edition 2022 published with Gallimard Editions and Folio.

I enjoyed asking Audrey about her artistic process, her favorite part about creating art, and much more.

UZOMAH: How do you explore queer representation and relationships through your art?

AUDREY: Essentially, just by living as a queer woman, every interaction I make comes either through my own individual lens or through a shared experience or a new lesson. I make art out of those who inspire me, who usually tend to be outside the heteronormative boxes. The relationships depicted are very real, typically close friends of mine or passers-by with whom I have struck up a conversation and probably formed some form of friendship later.

U: What word would you use to describe your artistic process?

A: Stressful

Back with you

U: How has creating art helped you evolve as a person?

A: I think myself and creative media are always going to be a package deal, so yes, I believe I wouldn’t evolve into the person I am now without it, but I can’t imagine what other tool would have allowed me to grow as much as having a creative outlet has.

U: Why art? Why now?

A: I’ve grown up as an artist; it’s within a lot of my family structure. I don’t really have a story of being some well-endowed financial or business type and making a dramatic switch to creative media, I always knew I was going to pursue art, and I always will.

Church Fire

U: What is your favorite part of creating art?

A: Probably the end product; I think a lot of ‘making’ I actually just ‘re-make’ until things become nearer to a final form, which can be time and thought-consuming at once. So I think getting to the end of a piece or project is the most fulfilling part.

U: How have your Irish roots influenced your artistic process?

A: Definitely, I think right now there is this very British or, perhaps, further European way of photographing and making, and I don’t really subscribe to that, especially with British culture having such a choke hold on Irish media and content. I have always tried to find contemporary Irish makers and untapped Irish historical artists to compare to and draw from to harness something more personal in my own storytelling rather than just the general anglicized version that seems to be on repeat.

Call Back

U: How can the field of arts help someone unsure of their sexuality explore themselves with a sense of freedom and creativity not traditionally found in society?

A: I think having your life, passions, and subconscious reflected back at you in what you pour into any creative outlet can help someone explore any area of one’s life that they may not be sure of, but in terms of sexuality, you can definitely paint a picture of what looks right and in turn feels right, more quickly than waiting for it to come around the corner and I think that’s what I like about lens-based media so much, you can construct and visualize the freedom and desired concepts that you want to take place or shape in your life and then work that into your personal spaces and interactions.

NYE

U: Homosexuality was not decriminalized in Ireland until 24 June 1993; how much further does Ireland have to go in accepting the LGBTQIA community? How has this treatment of the community affected your life and your art, and how do you use the lens to see things that bring about a brighter future for persons who identify as queer?

A: I think the key word there is decriminalized; even to think it was a criminal offense to be in a same-sex relationship is outrageous. However, Northern Ireland’s laws changed in 1982, and homosexuality, rather, openly homosexual behavior in domestic and public environments, was no longer punishable by law but still not legal. When something is technically not punishable any longer but is also not to the same standard of legality compared to heterosexual social attire and law, there is an underlying message sent of disapproval. Yes, this act is not bad, but it is also not good either. Even with same-sex marriage reform (11 Feb 2020, N.I), there is still that same limbo that exists today in viewing same-sex relationships and their validity, let alone their legal status, that I believe typical Northern Irish folk have toward being gay. Let’s also not forget all these laws & reforms are based around the acts of male homosexuals; if we look at the sexual offenses act of 1967, private sexual activity between men over 21 was decriminalized before 1982’s new laws. Women’s sexuality wasn’t even in question, let alone the in any state of crisis within the law, because lesbianism was and, in my opinion, still largely considered so subconsciously invalid or not of any societal worth even to make laws that regard lesbianism first.

I think with all that being the background to my upbringing that it was always going to be a part of my work, I love who I am, and I love being a lesbian. It will always appear in my work, and I will always advocate for myself and my fellow gay peers. Lesbianism has such a deep, untouchable history and future; I’m trying to grab peeks of it with whichever media I choose while trying carefully not to spoil the beauty of lesbian and queer sub-culture as it continues to evolve.

In Another Life

U: Have you used other mediums visually to express your artistic statement?

A: Yes! I move between analog photography in 35mm and medium format to silk screen printing, digital collage, and video. Photography tends to be the main focus, but I’ve always loved traditional arts. I have been a painter since early childhood, so the series ‘This Hurts’ may seem predominantly photo-based, but some other branches are seeping out that sometimes take a bit longer to produce due to the nature of the work.

For more information about Audrey’s artwork, please visit her site. Also, follow her on Instagram.