Maps of where I live continued

I made a small 3d mixed media map of Turraheen, using clay, wax, fabric, ceramics and sandpaper.

Maps of where I live

I looked at different ways that would best illustrate the movement over time on these maps. I was going to make a large scale 60 x 80 inch 3d plaster cast of the layered maps.

I came across this outside the casting room. I liked the effect of the relief that the paster gives

another idea I came across in the casting room. Someone pressed objects into clay to get that relief.

Maps of where I live

I started looking at who I am and what makes me who I am. I looked at where I'm from. I went to the local studies library and sourced loads of old maps of where I'm from. I found maps of Turraheen from as far back as the 1840's. I took photos of the maps and printed them off. I took ordnance survey maps from my Dad of the land around home. I compared all the maps from when the British first started making maps of the area until present day maps. It was interesting to look at how the land has changed in that time and what has remained the same. I made acetate transparencies of all of the maps and layered them one onto the other  to represent the changes.

ideas of what I could do with the paper maps-make 3d representations. I found this piece somewhere in the college and it gave me inspiration,

Other ideas of what I could do with the maps

I became interested in the typography of the maps and how it changed over time, the way the different map makers depicted the changes.

I also had an idea of how you could use the paper maps to make 3d representations, the idea of folding and manipulating the maps to make 3d representations.

My movement through my life-book of memories

I was advised to make things more relevant to me and my own experiences so I started looking at my own life movement. I took out old photographs and printed them out on transparent acetates. I layered the photographs from baby to present day to make a book of memories. Layering the translucent acetate photographs evokes the layers of memories of my life. I did a current self portrait in oils that I made a trasparent photo of as the cover of this book of memories.

My movement through my life

I’m still moving! I’ve moved onto the concept of my movement through my life. 

Contextual Research- Rachel Whiteread

House

Plaster cast- hot water bottle

polyester resin -book cases

One hundred spaces-negative space underneath chairs

Rachel Whiteread has been another infleuntial artist in this area. Her obsession with negative space resonated with the theme I'm working on.  I love her resin casts of negative space.

David Creedon

David Creedon's exhibition ' Ghosts of the Faithful Departed' resonates with this theme that I'm working on- movement through generations moving on and the trace memories that are left behind as evidence of lives once lived.

Piano and the sacred heart

Paddy bottle

The red fireplace

Green Kitchen

degeneration continued

More photographs taken from empty houses left with only traces of memories. One house had a clock still ticking in the kitchen. . . . .

concept- degeneration, generations of families moving on, evidence left behind, memories

I deviated ever so slightly towards the idea of generations moving on. I was driving from Galway to Limerick and I was struck by the amount of derelict houses along the way. I became interested in the idea of empty homes that would have once been full of life, life that has since moved on. I drove around the Limerick countryside and photographed the inside of derelict homes capturing people’s memories, signs of life that were once there. I photocopied the photographs onto transparencies in an effort to capture the essence of the traces of the memories, the memories that are hardly there anymore.