The work in this series aims to examine the potential presented by disruptions or ruptures in the ‘real’ or logical, temporal narrative of factual historical account. It emerges from a personal interest in how the bizzare, inexplicable, fantastical and absurd often enter records of events within the Irish tradition of story telling. In constructing photographic ‘tableaux’ around places reputed to be ‘haunted’ and their embedded narratives, I hope to preserve and relate a fascinating and enduring element within Irish culture. It is not necessarily the ‘haunting’ as a phenomenological truth or fallacy which interests me, but the rupture between the real and the imaginery which these narratives relate.  There is  something of illicit ‘ jouissance’, of a pleasure and thrill in defying objective logical order within these accounts.  They open a space for elaboration and play, not too distant from creative intuition. Truth, even that invested in the photographic moment, is always open to re-interpretation as part of a living, complex communication and exchange. The photographic image often begins from a story or a memory which ‘haunts’ each location. It relates much of how the psyche of a people collectively creates and recreates a future, through selectively re-assembling, or coming to terms with the past. What doesn’t always make sense, usually has a very important reason for not doing so.  In post-colonial theory, ‘haunting’ as a phenomenon can be understood, as the result of an unresolved and contentious dispute over the ownership of private property.

(Series 1) Ghosthunter (2008-09)

These works document my journeys to various ‘haunted’ sites in rural Ireland over an 18 month period. Each photograph is taken using black and white infra-red film. The images are accompanied by field notes. The text is inspired by the quasi-scientific methods of gathering data employed by modern paranormal investigators. The information also includes personal ‘observations’ of sensing unseen entities while on location. In some cases I have  obscured part of each photo with a black ‘orb’, in an attempt to simultaneously conceal and reveal a spot where I thought the invisible was lurking. These black holes in the image also refer to holes in time, memory, or the emergence of the repressed. While the works include an element of parody, my intention is that they may also be read as an honest account. Decisions regarding the ‘truth’ of the material rests within the belief system of the viewer.

(Series 2) Timetraveller (2009)

In these works I began with photographs from the Lawrence Collection, stored in the Clare County Library archive in Ennis. My starting point was the accidental discovery of an uncanny ‘ghostlike’ figure hovering in a shop doorway in Ennistymon, in an image from 1880. Using Lawrences image as a map, I set about finding the exact spot from which he viewed the scene. I then re-shot each location. Playing with the concept that sudden inexplicable visual manifestations (ghosts) are in fact timetravellers, I decided to transport something from 1880 to 2009 and visa versa. By keeping the works small in scale, I am inviting the viewer to engage with the subtlities of observation.

(Series 3) The Haunting (ongoing)

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