Rian Kerrane

Publications and Presentations

IRON R18
National Sculpture Factory & Crawford College of Art & Design, Ireland 2018

The IRON-R Project was established in 2011, with the objective of exploring the underused and often underappreciated medium of cast iron and investigate the array of casting techniques and processes used to generate artwork from this material. Many of these iron casting processes are becoming obsolete in Ireland and are rarely availed of or employed by the art community. The IRON-R Project is an opportunity for both emerging and established artists to re-engage with this lost medium and its technologies. IRON-R 18 is another opportunity to share knowledge and to demonstrate and highlight the medium’s application and value in contemporary art practice.

8th International Conference on Contemporary Cast Iron Art
Scranton, Pa., USA, 2018

Cast Iron Performance Artists often use the molten iron as a sculptural vehicle for the imagination, drawing on its innate material properties and rich historical references. From the speculative and visionary to the practical and applied, artists working with cast iron use a wide variety of processes in their work. One of particular appeal and complexity is using the art and act of melting and casting as the art itself as performance.

The Branding Iron Graffiti Project (or the housewife at the ironing board)
Iron 50, University of Minnesota Minneapolis, 2019

The University of Minnesota Minneapolis, (UM), is celebrating fifty years of casting iron. This is the longest standing iron casting program in the country. In the Iron 50 work, Rian incorporates the use of branding irons to generate communication as a means to critique the modes of expression we apply in current society. Rian is also intrigued by the content we deem important enough to communicate and make a permeant record. Identity, ownership, logos, graffiti, the custom of marking livestock, humans, the emoji texted in the stead of a word (or complete sentence); all are bound together in this work. Rian explores the power of the graphic symbol and the meaning of visual language when it becomes a cross cultural, universal language.