Curragh Chase House

Curragh Chase house was built in 1657 by Vere Hunt. I was destroyed by a fire in 1941 and all that remains today is the outer walls. The state bought the property and surrounding gardens in 1957 and it is now  projected by the special Area of Conservation.

My images are based on the house itself as i was always so interested in it and what could possibly be inside but there is no access in, or i haven't found one anyway. When I visited Curragh Chase the back off the grounds were some grounds workers have access to was closed off (maybe cause it was late in the year) so I couldn't get any feed back on what could possibly be inside.

Kilkeedy Graveyard, Clarina

This grave caught my eye whilst driving past it. The old church in the middle of the grave yard had no roof and windows and i had to check it out. The protestant church was interesting.

Carrigogunnell Castle, Clarina.

Based on a volcanic peak, Carrigogunnell Castle is a ruined  remains that was destroyed in 1691 by the English during the seigh of limerick. The limestone rocks of the building that remains is covered in Ivy, a really beautiful sight.

Chains and Locks

By looking at contact sheets by Ed Ruscha and Robert frank i learned a bit into the nature of sequences within the collection of images. Both traveled a land and you can see clear evidence of this in their contact sheets.



For this project i then choice the concept of locks and chains in the city. I looked at how somethings are locking something in or keeping people out. This interests me as these locks and chains can be broken very easily making the space trapped into a pubic space.

I also looked at how chains and locks were situated in a place of no purpose, like they were forgotten and just left there. Many of these were rusted by weather and force of the harsh winters.

Another thing i was looking at was how gates and bars do the same thing as locks and chains. There is a two paintings on Thomas Street in the heart of the city. these are of a woman and child. the one i picked was of particular interest to me because i feel shes the heart of the city as shes there holding her soul or heart. the paintings are in behind these large gates so you cant actually go in and see the painting and every time you try look at it properly, but all the bars just get in the way. Its like the heart of the city is trapped.

Because we were limited to one roll of film this project was particularly hard when it comes to taking the  images t make sure every one of them counts. Making sure every image was in proper exposure focus and composition was hard but it helped because i had a bigger selection to chose from. The developing of the film and the images was of extra care because if i messed it up there was no going back.

James Welling

James Welling is from Connecticut in the USA. He taught himself everything he knows from Knowing how to use a camera to developing and processing film and images.

 In his piece 'Oyster shells' I find the way it looks like something is being kept in. In my option it seems like maybe its expressing how we are kept out of places and how things are trapped away from us. This is something I'm trying to focus on with my 'Locks and Chains' dark room project.

I find my project connecting with this piece as i was trying to focus on what i see in the city. I feel, even if it wasn't Wellings idea, That he also shows in the piece what im trying to achieve by showing how things in the city are locked in and maybe there's a reason were locked out.

Traces

Robert /Smithson Wrote an article on the journey he made that was inspired by something he read. The aim to this project was to make us look at things in a different way. Sean Lynch showed us something in the city which he believed in and it was fascinating to learn about how he saw things. We had to come up with a project surrounding these two situations and use either the dark room or the digital prints.

I decided to use the dark room because I wanted to use it as a learning experience. By doing this I learned a lot about my skills and about the accuracy of developing both the film and images that I didn't know before. The frustrating practice is a great experience, and even though I say it frustrates me I absolutely love it because you have to put in so much thought and accuracy compared to the digital camera.

I ideas were all over the place but I combined them in some way as the connected and were based all around the same place. I looked at a river walk and found really interesting things as I did. This made me want to look at the traces of people and how they eave things behind. I found things like buggy's in the rive and crosses on the ground. These interested me because there is some kind of a history in each item I was looking at.

My final 8 pieces are all based by me photographing the construction of an image by other people. I didn't move and of the object or subject, I moved myself to get the images I wanted.

Oliver Boberg

German artist Oliver Boberg is a photography and video artist that works with creating and recalling memories.
His project 'Slums' s of extra interest to me at the moment because i am working on the traces of people and whats better to look at an artist who studies how some people lived and in hat the lives. As you can see in the images iv posted here you can see his interest through out the depth of the lifestyle of these people in there home lives.