Fine Art Painting

Aoife O’Neill

Aoife is a chronically online artist from Kilkenny. Her work is concerned with the ways in which women are portrayed online by both themselves and by others. She works with online found images, particularly those which seem aware of and perform for their viewers. Her engagement with these images involves removing them from their contexts and intended niche audiences. O’Neill hopes to subvert these images from a feminist perspective as well as confront a wider audience by bringing these images into a fine art context.

In particular, she is interested in the facial expression known as ahegao. This expression originated in pornographic anime and manga and is increasingly being emulated by real women online. These images often incorporate panels from manga by way of digital collage, blending real women with synthetic expressions of emotion catered toward the male gaze. As John Berger put it in Ways of Seeing, they are “offering up their femininity to be surveyed.”

Working primarily in oil pastel, drawing forms the basis of her practice. It is through different processes such as laminating that works are made more painterly. These processes also aim to disrupt their source images, questioning the audiences they are intended for. Preoccupied by all things plastic and shiny, Aoife’s work explores themes of sexuality and commodification.

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