STATEMENT

Throughout my career, I have engaged a provocative synthesis of video, film, audio and sculptural objects to create multidisciplinary performances, multimedia installations, experimental films, documentaries and interactive video scores to accompany live performance. I do not make distinctions between these forms but see them as deeply interconnected and equally part of my ongoing artistic output. In addition to media work, I maintain a daily, ritualistic practice of drawing and photography.

My hybrid projects deeply engage with pressing contemporary issues, seeking a dialogue between the political, philosophical, and ecological realms, by delving into themes of alienation through technology, surveillance and totalitarian control, the nature of identity, reality and privacy, humans’ impact on the planet, as well as the complexity of our relationship to rapidly advancing AI. I have repeatedly engaged digital media, filmmaking, computer arts and performance to converge the miraculous and the mundane, searching for unexpected ways to explore mystery, beauty, chaos and the process of transformation.

As a filmmaker, I have created a series of observational documentaries, largely focusing on NYC’s downtown performing arts world including The Wooster Group, Richard Foreman and Elevator Repair Service. Having spent time as a performer and designer myself, I was inspired to make these intimate meditations on life in the theater, capturing the behind the scenes choreography and the daily routines and rhythms.

Recently, I have been focusing on a new series of films that represent a distinct shift towards the personal and semi-narrative, offering a meditation on loss, mortality, and location, while charting emotive and psychological territories somewhere between reality and dream. I am driven to make passionate, personal and quietly political films, cinematic memory pieces pulsing with energy, yet embracing stillness, capturing small details – light splashed on walls, faces, hands, aging bodies, incorporeal voices, forgotten or overlooked places, people and objects. I am continually interested in narratives that fall apart, that lapse, suggested stories with missing pieces, where air and sky and the shape and color of nature can be glimpsed if only for a moment. 

BIO

Shaun’s hybrid work has been exhibited in diverse locations in New York and internationally including BAM’s Next Wave Festival, The Brooklyn Museum, Abrons Arts Center, The Chocolate Factory, Anthology Film Archives, REDCAT (Los Angeles), Z Space (San Francisco), CURRENTS New Media Festival (Santa Fe), Rencontres International Paris/Berlin and the Museo Nacional (Havana, Cuba). Shaun has received numerous awards including two NYFA Fellowships, multiple grants from the NEA, NYSCA, Jerome Foundation, Greenwall Foundation, Experimental Television Center, the Asian Cultural Council, Bel Geddes Design Fund and the Mertz Gilmore Foundation as well as creative residencies from MacDowell, Yaddo, LMCC, Harvestworks, Signal Culture, Bogliasco Foundation, the Camargo Foundation, and the Tokyo Wonder Site.

In addition to being a filmmaker and visual artist, Shaun is a lecturer at the International Center of Photography and a longtime Teaching Artist at The Kitchen art and performance space in NYC.

Full resume: S_IRONS_CV_6.20

AWARDS, GRANTS, and RESIDENCIES:


2020

MacDowell Residency Fellowship


2019

New York State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Grant

Yaddo Residency Fellowship


2018

New York State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Grant

Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center Work Space Residency


2017

Bau Institute Residency at The Camargo Foundation

The MacDowell Colony Residency Fellowship

NYSCA Presentation Funds (ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes)


2016

New York State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Grant

Hospitalfield Interdisciplinary Residency (Scotland)


2015

New York State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Grant

Signal Culture Residency


2014

New York State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Grant

Bogliasco Foundation Residency Fellowship (Italy)


2013

Mertz Gilmore Foundation Grant

Bel Geddes Design Enhancement Fund

LMCC Swing Space Residency


2012

NYSCA Distribution Grant

BAX (Brooklyn Arts Exchange) Space Grant

Harvestworks New Works Residency Fellowship


2011

HERE Artist in Residence Award

Experimental Television Center Finishing Funds Award

Governors Island Studio Residency


2009

New York State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Grant

NYFA Special Opportunity Award

ETC Presentation Funds Award

Greenwall Foundation Grant


2008

Yaddo Residency Fellowship

Experimental Television Center Finishing Funds Award


2007

Tokyo Wonder Site Residency (in collaboration with Asian Cultural Council)

The MacDowell Colony Residency Fellowship


2006

NYSCA Electronic Media and Film Program Distribution Grant

Asian Cultural Council Travel and Study Fellowship

New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Video

Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Fellowship

Yaddo Residency Fellowship


2005

Director’s Citation; Black Maria Film Festival

New York State Council on the Arts Individual Artists Grant

National Endowment for the Arts Grant:  Access to Artistic Excellence


2004

The Greenwall Foundation Grant

Jerome Foundation Media Arts Grant


2003

New York City Poetry In Motion Video Award

Experimental Television Center Residency; Owego, NY


2002

New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Video


MULTIMEDIA PERFORMANCES

All Over Everywhere, 2019 (in-progress); multimedia installation and performance

2021 Upcoming – Center for Performance Research, NYC


Why Why Always, 2015-2017; live cine-performance

2017  ABRONS ARTS CENTER, New York, NY

2016  CATCH @ INVISIBLE DOG, Brooklyn, NY (excerpt)

2015  GOVERNORS ISLAND ART FAIR, New York, NY (in-development)


Keep Your Electric Eye On Me, 2012-2015; multimedia live performance

2014  HERE ARTS CENTER, New York. NY

2013  INVISIBLE DOG, Brooklyn, NY  (excerpt)

2012  BAX Brooklyn, NY (workshop presentation)


the horror the horror (i have plenty of energy to drive over there), 2011; multimedia performance

2011  ABRONS ARTS CENTER, New York, NY

2011  CURRENTS NEW MEDIA FESTIVAL, Santa Fe, NM

2010  MOVEMENT RESEARCH FESTIVAL @ DANSPACE, New York, NY


Curtains!, 2010; installation and live performance featuring Michael Buscemi

2011  PS122, AVANT-GARDE-ARAMA, curated by The Wooster Group; New York,  NY

2010  HERE ARTS CENTER, New York. NY


INSTALLATION PROJECTS


All Over Everywhere, 2019 (in-progress); multimedia installation and performance

2019 PORTAL @ GOVERNORS ISLAND, New York, NY


Atmospheres & Accidental Ghosts, 2012-2015; two-channel, self-generating video installation

2015 NEW YORK ELECTRONIC ARTS FESTIVAL, New York, NY

2012 BEAT FESTIVAL, Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn, NY


Revolving Twilight, 2009-10; multiple-channel video installation

2010  GOVERNORS ISLAND ART FAIR, New York, NY

2009  THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, Long Island City, NY


Here, Everything Is Still Floating, 2007; video installation with refracted projections

2011  CURRENTS NEW MEDIA FESTIVAL, Santa Fe, NM

2009  FRIEDRICH PETZEL GALLERY, New York, NY  NYFA Artists Exhibition

2007  TOKYO WONDER SITE, Tokyo, Japan

2007  3RD WARD, Brooklyn, NY


Artificial Paradise; 2003-2006; four-channel video/audio installation

2004  CHELSEA MUSEUM, New York, NY

2003  HARVESTWORKS, New York, NY


dream of automatic release, 2003-2005; three-channel video/audio installation

2009  OCULARIS @ GALAPAGOS, Brooklyn, NY

2006  ART INTERACTIVE GALLERY, Boston, MA

2002  R:E:M:O:T:E, New York, NY

2001  DUMBO ARTS FESTIVAL, Brooklyn, NY


FREEZE, 2001; two-channel video/audio installation

2004  MOBIUS GALLERY, Boston, MA

2002  TUGBOAT FILM & VIDEO FESTIVAL, various locations New York, NY

2001  RENCONTRES INTERNATIONALES, Paris & Berlin


FILMWORK:  FEATURE LENGTH and SHORTS

Bye For Now, 2019 (in-progress); documentary short


Hey Charlie, 2018 (in-progress); film short

2019  NEW OHIO THEATER, Indie Theater Film Festival, New York, NY (upcoming)


Standing By: Gatz Backstage, 2014-16; feature-length documentary

2020  Berkeley Rep, Berkeley, CA

2019  NYU SKIRBALL CENTER, New York, NY

2017  NEW OHIO THEATER, Indie Theater Film Festival, New York, NY

2016  SESC, São Paulo, Brazil

2015  ZSPACE, San Francisco, CA

2014  ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES, New York, NY


Is Anyone Not Ready?, 2010; feature-length documentary

2012  BROOKLYN HEIGHTS CINEMA, Brooklyn, NY

2011 ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES, New York, NY


Meet Pamela, 2004-05; single-channel video

2008  DIVERSIONS FILM FESTIVAL, The Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Scotland


Keeping Things Whole, 2004-05; single-channel video (Poetry Society Commission)

2007  SADHO FILM FESTIVAL, New Delhi, India

2004  REEL NY, broadcast on Channel Thirteen

2003  BROOKLYN MUSEUM OF ART, Brooklyn, NY

2002 BROOKLYN MUSEUM OF ART, Brooklyn, NY


stop motion, 2004-05; single-channel video with 5-channel audio

2006  TESLA GALLERY, Berlin, Germany

2005  INTERSPACE MEDIA ARTS CENTER, Sofia, Bulgaria

2004  MUSEO NACIONAL DE BELLAS ARTES, Havana, Cuba


VIDEO DESIGN FOR THEATER, DANCE & MUSIC


ROSE’S WAR, an inter-racial musical love story by Todd Allan

2019  RAVE THEATER FESTIVAL, New York, NY


VEILS, a dance performance by Cynthia Berkshire

2019  UNIVERSITY SETTLEMENT, New York, NY


MYTHO, a theater work by Anna Kohler

2016  ABRONS ARTS CENTER, New York, NY

2016 BOSTON PLAYWRIGHTS’ THEATER, Boston, MA


Thumbprint, an opera work by Kamala Sankaram

2017  REDCAT, Los Angeles

2014  PROTOTYPE FESTIVAL, New York, NY


From Here To There, a dance work by Ballet ADI, choreographed by Runqiao Du

2013  AMERICAN DANCE INSTITUTE, Rockville, Maryland

69°S, multimedia theater work by the Phantom Limb Company

2011  BAM NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL, Brooklyn, NY

2011  NOORDERZON PERFORMING ARTS FESTIVAL, Groningen, The Netherlands


Roadkill Confidential, a play by Sheila Callahan

2010  3LD, New York, NY


Paris Syndrome, a performance work by ExP Girl

2010  HERE, New York, NY


00:07, a play by Yehuda Duenyas based on Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink

2008  HERE, New York, NY


Fragile Stone Theory, a dance work by The Francesca Harper Project

2007  VENICE BIENNALE, Venice, Italy


Hamlet, The Wooster Group

2007  ST. ANN’S WAREHOUSE, Brooklyn, NY


Modo Fusion, a dance work by The Francesca Harper Project

2007  HOLLAND DANCE FESTIVAL, The Hague, The Netherlands


One Million Forgotten Moments, a theater project by Yehuda Duenyas

2006  LOWER MANHATTAN CULTURAL COUNCIL, New York, NY


Traces/Fades, a play by Lenora Champagne

2005  HERE, New York, NY