Home
The meaning of home, of a protected refuge, is very often connected with comfort, relationships, family, friends and the traditional rituals that give meaning to our lives. While the term is immediately identifiable and the physical reality of home is a central characteristic of our everyday lives, our perceptions of what home truly means to us does not get very much attention. It seems something most of us have taken for granted, but the most elemental embodiment of life is home. Its has vestiges of greeting card schlock ‘Home is where the heart is’ when it can have negative personal connotations. Home is also related to memory, a wish to honour the past and communicate to others our identities through the spirit of our homes or a country as an identity. Our collective relationship with our nationality can have many implications too as a home identity borne out by the trauma people experience after a national crisis through a natural disaster or a political upheaval. Without a home everything is decentralised, waiting without living.
The exhibition deals with peoples personal, political and financial connection with the nature of Home. The viewer is presented with a visual narrative exploring various subjects dealing with the theme. The 8 photographers involved have all taken aspects of this using their unique style from Noel Bowlers look at interim housing in the Congo where families have made temporary accommodation their neighbourhood waiting for the time when they can return ‘home’ thru to Joe Sterling look at his children living in two countries experiencing separate cultural identities after their parents separation a project ‘infused with melancholy, with intimations of suspended time and a pervading sense of aloneness’. (Val Williams)
This Is it Gallery is one of Irelands freshest contemporary Galleries. Situated in Dublin’s 13 North Great George’s Street what separates this space from most galleries is its uncommon charm, offering artists a unique way of show casing their art. Its layers of wallpaper torn from decades of inhabitants, create and recreate layer after layer of cultural meaning. Modern and old sit together in deference to time and use. It hass had many uses, from grand family home, to filthy tenement. Recently it has been used as a photographers studio, film set and Music TV programme set.
The This Is It Gallery will have its grand opening and we are proud to announce the very first exhibition in conjunction with PhotoIreland 2010. Some of Irelands best known photographers and those new to the scene will kick start the grand opening with an Exhibition called ‘Home’. DJs, live music and more will be there at the opening to provide what we hope will be a great night out with a bit of culture thrown in….and probably some cheap wine too. The exhibition will start at 7:30 pm with a talk given by a special guest to be announced about the aspects of Home and Identity.
Lorna O’Brien orginially comes from a fine art background. She is a Sallynoggin graduate and has a B.A(hons) in Documentary Photography from Newport in South Wales 2004. She will be starting her masters degree in Photography in september 2010 at Ulster University.
She has spent the last three years working as a photographic editor in the News Industry while still taking pictures and working on personal projects. Lorna has recently started up the ‘This Is It’ Gallery. ‘Home’ will be her first time curating a show.
For more info contact info@photoireland.com
