The focus of my studio practice is the ghost town of Rathdowney, Co. Laois; which happens to be my mother's hometown. When driving through rural Irish towns, main streets lined with closed shops, boarded up windows and sunken in roofs have become a common sight. Having grown up visiting Rathdowney on a regular basis, I've witnessed the closing and abandoning of spaces I was familiar with. Revisiting this year after a longer period of time, it really impacted my memories of the town and of each individual building.
My work deals with my memories of these places and the tales I've been told by family that lived and still live there. I developed a process of giving and taking of what lies there now. Through experimentation, I've explored each space thoroughly and placed emphasis on what inhabits them now and what does not.
'Flare in The Square'
'Wigs on the green' (left); 'Knee high to a grasshopper' (right)
'Queen of The Erkina'
'Valley of the peeping windows'
'Flare in The Square'
'Not a child washed in the house'
'Shouldn't lose your vest till May'
'It's all a cod'
'Hauld your whisht'