The Chemistry Of Me – Hunger magazine Issue 39
Hunger magazine Issue 39 (July 2026) published an article, The Women Painting the Art Landscape, which included Robyn Daly's photograph, The Chemistry of Me, as one of the nominated works from the 2026 Women in Art Fair.
A seminal work in Daly's practice, The Chemistry of Me considers the body as ongoing chemical relations through which we come to know ourselves and the world.
"I'd read an article in an American science journal about a project that was creating a chemical map of the human body and it resonated with my thinking that we are more than matter, we are chemistry. And going beyond that, we are made up of chemical relations," said Daly.
The Chemistry of Me is a self-portrait photographed in a 26-second long exposure using a Fujifilm X-T5.
"Long exposures give me a way to explore how we exist in the world and to reveal what the human eye cannot ordinarily see. Through the interplay of light, time and movement the body becomes unstable in beautiful ways, merging with and emerging from its surroundings: we are not simply in the world; we exist through our relations with the world. The Chemistry of Me takes this one step further by considering how we might exist through our relations with ourselves," said Daly.
The work was made in December 2025 in the dying light of a winter evening in Ireland.
"I really needed that fire – it was freezing in there. This is the old dining room in my house. It's the most run-down of the rooms. The floor is collapsing in one corner and it's draughty as all hell, so it’s always cold because the wind comes up from under the house through the floorboards," she recalls. "But it's conditions like these that concentrate the mind."
Daly moved into her run-down 1920s house in 2024 with plans to renovate it completely, but then changed tack.
"I started to photograph in the rooms, and the more photographs I made there, the more I realised that the true beauty of the house was its imperfections. So, I have left the two front rooms downstairs with their scars, peeling paint and crumbling plaster, and all the beauty that age has given them. It's been something of a lesson in acceptance. I’ve even learned to treasure some archival cobwebs!"
The Chemistry of Me was first exhibited at the Women in Art Fair in May 2026, where it was acquired by renowned collector Christian Levett. The work now forms part of the Levett Collection, one of the world's most significant private collections devoted to women artists and the foundation of FAMM (Female Artists of Mougins Museum), the first museum outside the United States dedicated entirely to women artists.
The Levett Collection and FAMM (Female Artists of Mougins Museum), includes works by many of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries' most influential women artists.
Levett's commitment to women artists, particularly his extraordinary collection of Abstract Expressionists, has reshaped the way many people encounter women's contributions to art history.
"Seeing The Chemistry of Me appear in the Levett Collection alongside artists whose work has inspired me – including Lee Miller, Cindy Sherman and Dora Maar – was a defining moment. I realised my work had entered a conversation I had hoped for, but never expected."
