Rebecca Deegan
November 15, 2021.
Rebecca Deegan is a figurative artist from Ireland, creating dark, surreal, and atmospheric oil paintings. Before starting her residency, Rebecca researched into Icelandic folklore, and was drawn to the story of Útburður, which inspired the project she worked on at the Fish Factory. Long ago when a woman gave birth to an unwanted baby, she would wrap the child in a cloth and leave it on a lava field. The child would freeze overnight, and come back in the form of Útburður – a type of ghost with the skull of the baby, and the body of a bird, with plumage the same colour as the cloth it was wrapped in.
In her paintings, Rebecca explored the archetypal symbols of this story, as well as natural elements from the beautiful and vast landscape of Stöðvarfjörður. She also experimented with ceramics – she sculpted a ceramic baby skull, and was lucky to find a pair of bird wings in a field, which she used to create a mixed media Útburður sculpture. During her time at the Fish Factory, Rebecca slowed her pace right down, and took time to explore the landscape, go Aurora hunting, and create detailed paintings in which she aspired to capture the mystical beauty of the land, and the underlying darkness of the folktales.
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Thank you, Rebecca! :)