When I started my research in Sept ’03, some of the wards were still occupied by patients and staff. As ward by ward evacuated I was left with the husk of the building, remanants of furniture and the most poignant and personal marks left by the patients themselves. The scarring from cigarette burns, placed in some places wittingly and others deliberately, are a robust image in themselves. Similarily I found painstaking paint picking on pillars and skirting boards, words and messages, scratches, drawings and marks. These are the voices that say I am here, I was here, this is me. Through my photographs I wish to honour that tenacious mark of survival in these images.
As the institution empties, large rooms and corridors are laid bare to the original structure. It is people who have shaped its unique life and destiny. The complexities of changing circumstances and regimes witnessed by these walls mirror society’s own dreams, beliefs and ambiguities.
‘Chair’
Photographic Lambdachrome print mounted on acrylic, 100 x 100 cm
‘Chair Mark I’
Photographic Lambdachrome print mounted on acrylic, 100 x 100 cm
‘Chair Mark II’
Photographic Lambdachrome print mounted on acrylic, 100 x 100 cm
‘Chair Mark III’
Photographic Lambdachrome print mounted on acrylic, 100 x 100 cm
‘Dead or Alive’
Photographic Lambdachrome print mounted on acrylic, 100 x 100 cm
‘Curtain’
Photographic Lambdachrome print mounted on acrylic, 100 x 100 cm
‘Lipstick’
Photographic Lambdachrome print mounted on acrylic, 67 x 100 cm
‘Back Cover’
Photographic Lambdachrome print mounted on acrylic, 67 x 100 cm
‘Floor Mark I’
Photographic Lambdachrome print mounted on acrylic, 67 x 100 cm
‘Floor Mark II’
Photographic Lambdachrome print mounted on acrylic, 67 x 100 cm
‘Floor Mark III’
Photographic Lambdachrome print mounted on acrylic, 67 x 100 cm
‘Floor Mark IV’
Photographic Lambdachrome print mounted on acrylic, 100 x 100 cm
‘Kitchen’
Photographic Lambdachrome print mounted on acrylic, 100 x 100 cm
‘Pillar Mark I’
Photographic Lambdachrome print mounted on acrylic, 100 x 100 cm
‘Pillar Mark II’
Photographic Lambdachrome print mounted on acrylic, 100 x 100 cm
‘Moor’
Photographic Lambdachrome print mounted on acrylic, 100 x 100 cm
‘Corridor I’
Photographic Lambdachrome print mounted on acrylic, 140 x 122 cm
‘Corridor II’
Photographic Lambdachrome print mounted on acrylic, 100 x 100 cm
‘Red Corridor’
Photographic Lambdachrome print mounted on acrylic, 140 x 122 cm
‘Red Curtain’
Photographic Lambdachrome print mounted on acrylic, 100 x 100 cm
‘Stairway’
Photographic Lambdachrome print mounted on acrylic, 140 x 122 cm
‘Room I’
Photographic Lambdachrome print mounted on acrylic, 100 x 100 cm
‘Room II’
Photographic Lambdachrome print mounted on acrylic, 100 x 100 cm
‘Stuffing’
Photographic Lambdachrome print mounted on acrylic, 100 x 100 cm
‘Ward’
Photographic Lambdachrome print mounted on acrylic, 100 x 100 cm
‘Window’
Photographic Lambdachrome print mounted on acrylic
‘Window Sill’
Photographic Lambdachrome print mounted on acrylic, 100 x 100 cm
‘Yellow Room’
Photographic Lambdachrome print mounted on acrylic, 100 x 100 cm
‘Yellow Room II’
Photographic Lambdachrome print mounted on acrylic, 100 x 100 cm
‘God Exits’
Photographic Lambdachrome print mounted on acrylic, 100 x 100 cm
Installation, The Linen Hall Gallery, Castlebar, Co. Mayo >>
Installation View
Installation View
Installation, John David Mooney Foundation, Chicago >>
