The Cloud Machine Seán Hillen

12 - 17 November 2024

Photo Museum Ireland is proud to present a pop-up projection exhibition by one of Ireland’s most loved artists, Seán Hillen. 

The new work is light-hearted metafiction charting Hillen’s quixotic quest for a perfectly cubic cloud. It riffs on many tropes, especially ‘pareidolia’ - the tendency to see patterns in random stimuli - and takes delight in manipulating the techniques of photography to frame and illuminate the sublime sense of groundedness, perspective, joy and shared humanity that sky-gazing engenders in us all.

On another level the work is about the role of neurodiversity in human society; as Hillen puts it, it is about “my ability as a person with Asperger’s to see things that others can not see, and to fail to see things they can…”

Seán Hillen has also realised this project in printed form, The Cloud Machine. Published in a limited edition by Photo Museum Ireland, it includes an essay by Prof Luke Gibbons and is available exclusively in the Museum Bookshop. 

To mark Science Week 2024, the Museum is offering a packed programme of events including artist’s talks, expert discussions, tours and weekend workshops for all ages.

Please visit www.photomuseumireland.ie/events for speaker details and times. All events are free, but early booking is especially advised for the weekend children/family workshops.

Seán Hillen’s project is supported by the Arts Council’s Arts and Disability Connect Scheme managed by Arts & Disability Ireland.

Artist Biography

Born in Newry in 1961, Seán Hillen studied at Slade School of Art (London) and is recognised for his work in photomontage, in photography as well as an inventor. One of Ireland’s most-loved artists, Hillen is the subject of a full-length documentary titled “Tomorrow is Saturday” which now available on Netflix. The film won the Royal Television Society’s 'Factual Programme of The Year' & IFI DocFest Audience Award.