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- Darragh Nugent
Darragh
Nugent
Screen bound
My work explores the complex, evolving relationship between the human body and modern technology, particularly our dependence on mobile phones. The project began through my daily commutes, where I observed the public’s growing need for constant entertainment and disconnection from their surroundings. Initial sketches and paintings captured individuals with phones in place of their heads, symbolizing identity, social class, and the loss of personal awareness. Inspired by artists like Laurie Lipton, F.E. McWilliams, and Beate Kuhn, I developed clay figures with exaggerated postures, hunched backs, and elongated limbs, reflecting the physical consequences of digital fixation.
As the project developed, I focused on the psychological effects of procrastination and the numbing dopamine cycle induced by screens. Through photography and self-referential sketches, I depicted anxiety, distraction, and withdrawal. This culminated in multi-figure sculptures, casting processes, and installations symbolizing internal struggle and the fight to reclaim presence. Drawing influence from Octave Tassaert and Mihuel Horn, my final works include vacuum-formed plastic forms and painted imagery, merging chaos and clarity. Each piece aims to depict our struggle and dependancy on technology.
Led astray
This project explores the unsettling realities of modern life, focusing on the pervasive influence of social media and the mechanisms of control embedded within it. Through a series of visual metaphors and culminating in an animation, the work presents humanity as sheep — a symbol of passive conformity — blindly following curated content and societal expectations without question. The piece critiques how easily we are led astray, manipulated by algorithms that shape our perceptions, values, and even our sense of self, often without our awareness.
Inspired by the idea of collective behavior and mass manipulation, the animation highlights the dangers of blindly consuming digital content, drawing parallels between online influence and real-world consequences. The work confronts our relentless pursuit of validation, distraction, and material gain, even as time and presence slip quietly by.
By portraying the human condition through animalistic imagery and stark, symbolic narratives, the project aims to spark a deeper reflection on personal agency, the cost of conformity, and the urgency of reclaiming attention. Viewers are asked to consider not only how they engage with social media, but also how that engagement subtly steers their thoughts, habits, and priorities — urging a conscious return to the present moment and authentic living.