The Feather Assembly
This gallery features a selection of images from my ongoing project - An Dáil Cleite / The Feather Assembly. The title is taken from the Seán Mac Fheorais poem, Cága.
The project represents my recent studies of the beauty and character of our most commonplace neighbours, the members of the crow family (specifically Rooks and Jackdaws) found (mainly) in counties Roscommon and Sligo, Ireland. Core to my artistic vision is my desire to bring to the forefront the often ignored beauty of the most commonplace things that surround our everyday lives. For this project I have stepped away from my usual subject matter of architecture and landscapes to focus on the domestic wildlife that we live beside all our lives. Like many other people the Covid lockdowns and restrictions provided me with the opportunity to explore my locale, and with fewer people and much less traffic my awareness and appreciation of the wildlife that lives on our very doorsteps was awakened.
The inspiration for the project came from a commission that I undertook for the vocal group, M’ANAM in 2019 to create an image for their debut album. With the deeply spiritual nature of the music, I decided that the work needed an image of an animal both mystical and everyday to reflect this aspect of the music. Following many days of photographing the crows of Strandhill, the piece Hrafnaguõ was created, and my creative interest in Crows was ignited.
This project so far has led to two solo exhibitions, a successful fellowship panel at the Royal Photographic Society, and works from the project appearing in group exhibitions around the world.
The project represents my recent studies of the beauty and character of our most commonplace neighbours, the members of the crow family (specifically Rooks and Jackdaws) found (mainly) in counties Roscommon and Sligo, Ireland. Core to my artistic vision is my desire to bring to the forefront the often ignored beauty of the most commonplace things that surround our everyday lives. For this project I have stepped away from my usual subject matter of architecture and landscapes to focus on the domestic wildlife that we live beside all our lives. Like many other people the Covid lockdowns and restrictions provided me with the opportunity to explore my locale, and with fewer people and much less traffic my awareness and appreciation of the wildlife that lives on our very doorsteps was awakened.
The inspiration for the project came from a commission that I undertook for the vocal group, M’ANAM in 2019 to create an image for their debut album. With the deeply spiritual nature of the music, I decided that the work needed an image of an animal both mystical and everyday to reflect this aspect of the music. Following many days of photographing the crows of Strandhill, the piece Hrafnaguõ was created, and my creative interest in Crows was ignited.
This project so far has led to two solo exhibitions, a successful fellowship panel at the Royal Photographic Society, and works from the project appearing in group exhibitions around the world.
