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Susan Hughes
About the artist
Through learning fiddle music in South West Donegal, Susan Hughes has gained access to compelling stories and characters which form the subjects of new video works made for the Folk Museum.
After many years working in construction, Gene Eoghan Ó Curraighín is in great demand as a storyteller and basket weaver. His descriptions of weaving are set over beautiful archival footage of creel making in Boho, County Fermanagh (lent by the NI Screen Archive).
Gene’s neighbour, Anne Cunningham, comes from a long line of musicians and fisherfolk. She has worked for many years as an Irish language teacher. In this film she reads from ‘Síscéalta ó Thír Chonaill’ (1951), an anthology of fairy legends from Donegal in her beautiful Teelin dialect.
Susan Hughes, from Belfast, graduated with a MFA (2021) from the University of Ulster. She has completed many artist residencies in Ireland and Scandinavia where she has used her traditional fiddle playing as a bartering tool to gain access to local stories. She is a studio holder with Orchid Studios and is a recipient of the Freelands Artist Programme Award 2022-2024.. Her short film ‘Eyes Like Cats’ is currently touring internationally with the AEMI 2023 programme.
Susan Hughes is based between the North and South of Ireland. She graduated with a distinction in her MFA in 2021 from the University of Ulster. She is a current participant of the Freelands Foundation Artists' Programme and is a studio holder at Orchid Studios, Belfast.
She has completed many artist residencies in Ireland and Scandinavia where she has used her fiddle playing as a bartering tool to gain access to local stories. She has been awarded the Centre Culturel Irlandais residency which she will attend in 2024.
2023 Leaspáin, An Chultúrlann, Belfast
2022 Swept, Platform Arts, Belfast
2021 Never Lost, CCA, Derry/L’Derry Project Space
