CIANA TAYLOR

Ciana Taylor is a London-based Irish artist whose moving-image practice blends archival research, performance, and installation to explore belief systems, cultural memory, and the lingering influence of Ireland’s religious past. She builds immersive environments that draw viewers into questions of identity, history, and contemporary ritual.  

After completing her BA at Chelsea College in 2023, she won the Stan Smith Award for an Artist Under 35 for her film Sex Education for Girls. She has since exhibited with London galleries and collectives including Seventeen, Flat Time House, The Koppel Projects, Hypha Studios, Young Space, The London Group, and Copeland Gallery. She has also received two awards from Roscommon Arts Council and a grant from Arts Council England.

Ciana is currently developing new work that asks what forms of spirituality emerge when traditional religion dissolves, tracing how Irish identity continues to negotiate its spiritual inheritance.

“During my residency at DOMUS, I have been developing a video work, Egragore, while experimenting with sculptural forms for a larger installation. The project is shaped by the town’s architecture and the visibility of religious ritual in everyday space. My research into the Taranta is currently informing the conceptual direction of the work.

I am also interested in the parallels between Italian and Irish culture, particularly in shared religious visual languages, folklore, and communal traditions. The recurring motif of the spider functions as a symbol of the female body — feared yet protective, vulnerable and generative. a figure that holds together ideas of creation, containment, and transformation”