Inspiration

As part of this project I was awarded a residency at Cill Rialaig in Ireland. I spent a week living in a restored pre-Famine stone cottage on Bolus Head, Co. Kerry, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.  I used this time to further read and study about the history of the Irish Famine, but also the meaning of psychogeography, the effect of geographical location on emotions and behavior. It got me thinking about influences in my work, specifically where I grew up. Growing up in the Boyne Valley of County Meath, the physical evidence of the past coexists in a modern world. There are spectacular examples of Megalithic archaeology at Newgrange, Knowth, Dowth and Lough Crew. Newgrange is of course the best-known passage tomb and a spectacular monument to death.  I credit the influence of the Irish landscape on my decision to build the installation into the form of a cairn. The form makes sense to me culturally, aesthetically and symbolically. 

Image credits: Paula Stokes