Dresses fashioned from tissue paper occupy a domestic space, highlighting the central role played by the home and family in the formation of an adoptee’s sense of identity. Tissue paper’s association with wrapping and concealing along with its inherent fragility provide a resonance to the issue being addressed.
Working Through makes visible the invisible individuals involved in closed adoptions. The spectral aesthetic reflects the multitude of ghosts haunting all parties involved.
Coded references to the passage of time, numbers of adoptions, and multiplicity of dualities inherent in the closed adoption scenario are present throughout the installation.
A short record of Working Through as installed on Sherkin Island May 2018.
Installation at Dublin Institute of Technology, Grangegorman, Dublin 2018.
Installation at Women and Children of Bessboro Commemoration, Cork. June 2018
Installation in group show
Heart of the Forest, Baby Forest 2018 Photograph by Richard Lloyd-Lewis
Installation in group show.
Stay With Me University College Cork, 2019
Original documents, artefacts, and photographs both personal and appropriated are montaged in a personal response to closed adoption.
The acknowledgement of risk inherent in the act of contacting birth parents.
The known and unknown, hidden and revealed are central to this work.
Interviews with residents on Sherkin Island about their lives on and in some cases prior to arriving on the island, have resulted in responsorial mixed media pieces combining cartography, photography and symbols.
Sculptures reminiscent of geodes and coral are formed from cones of masking tape.
