Sharon Molloy

Sharon Molloy was born in Preston, England 1969. She graduated from Winchester School of Art in 1990 with a BFA and soon after traveled to India and Thailand. She then spent 3 years living and working in Tokyo before attending the San Francisco Art Institute for her MFA in1995-97 . In 1998 she attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and in 2000 was accepted to the Marie Walshe Sharpe Studio Program for a one year rent free studio space in Manhattan. She remained in New York until recently moving to upstate. She has been included in various group shows across the US and internationally. Recently she was included in ‘Janes Bond’ at Contemporary Art Month, San Antonio, curated by Jack the Pelican Presents of Williamsburg. She has had 2 solo shows in the UK. In 2005 she also attended Braziers International Artists’ Workshop in Oxford continuing on to be artist in residence at Art Space in Portsmouth, England. Last year she and her partner started ‘Future 86’ a bi-annual art event showing the work of contemporary artists, at their home in the Catskills, NY. They are in the process of creating a summer exhibition space. In January 2007 she was commissioned by Seed magazine to create a piece in response to the recent work of British physicist, Neil Johnson and his research into the mathematics of contemporary warfare. She continues to live and work in upstate New York.

The work I make approaches concepts in science from a feminist point of view. I take various ideas from quantum physics, chaos and complexity theory and infuse them with my own political perspective both as a woman and a painter.
The history of science since before the 16th century has been a distinctly masculine endeavor. It has played a major role in shaping our culture and has helped lead us to our current state of conflict. Many of us are unaware of the impact that the modern scientific paradigm has had on all levels of our lives and how much it has governed how we see ourselves and navigate the world. The history of modern science has played a key role in perpetuating limited assumptions about nature and women and has lead to the continuing domination of both.
Although a patriarchal framework still pervades much of contemporary scientific practice, the new ideas about the nature of reality are challenging the old mechanistic way of seeing.
Feminists have long argued that the dualistic point of view governing our thinking for so long; male/female, mind/body, individual/collective, self/other, culture/nature is both limiting and dangerous. It has strove towards an idea of reality not unlike what we are seeing in contemporary scientific thought. For example Chaos theory recognizes nature as a dynamic and self-organizing entity as opposed to the passive, predictable subject of the pre-modern era. Quantum physics is redefining the nature of the mind and challenges the separation and detachment between subject and object so vehemently defended by the scientific institutions of the past. It has also shown how paradoxical nature is on a fundamental level.
We are now in the process of a social revolution. The old paradigm that has allowed the power of the few to be held over the many is dissolving and the language of feminism along with new science can engender the renaming and redefining of our place and encourage us to reclaim our power.
My work attempts to ignite these ideas and reminds the viewer of what we inherently know; that genuine power lies within the collective, that everything is interconnected and interdependent, and that even the smallest gesture or action can produce massive and profound change.