Bible work

Since I have been looking up biblical terms, I decided that the Bible itself should become a part of my work. I have only started exploring this but I hope to carry it through.  I bought a bible, and have now begun to hollow it out, it has taken me 4 blades already and I am only a quarter of the way through so it wont by completed in time for progress reviews. Once completed I am hoping to fill it with different juxtaposing items, perhaps a bar of soap as the girls used to scrub the dirty laundry by hand using bars of soap.

I also purchased another hard back book. I opened it in the middle and painted it white. I then bought some thorns and glued them on, in the hope they would look like text - biblical text. also referring to the crown of thorns jesus wore on the cross. this is still a work in progress and only my first attempt.

Confessional Box

This is a digital print of the confessional box just inside the college, attached to the church part of the building. One of the nuns "mottos" was 'labour for the salvation of souls'. This labour was a form of penance for their sins. I really liked how this photograph turned out. It is actually 2 photographs layered and edited in photoshop. I think it brings out the dominating, monumental qualities of this Institute. I am going to photograph more confessional boxes around Limerick. I am hoping to gain access to the Franciscan Church in town to take more photographs like these.

No access to the attics :(

Unfortunately, I was no granted access to the college attics. I am very disappointed over this as I know the attics have not changed at all since the time of the Magdalene Laundries. I will stick to the rules though and continue to take photographs on the areas I am allowed to visit. I also decided to photograph the attic windows from the front of the college. I think that these are rather effective and add an eerie, mysterious quality. I am very tempted to try an etching & aquatint of these as I adore the tonal qualities.

The empty statue in the front Garden

In the front garden, set into the wall, there is a statue plint, with a plaque, however the statue is missing. It was taken away since the Laundries closed. I find this piece very interesting and I am hoping to work with it further. The religious element of the statue has been removed, yet the foundations are still intact - quite like the Laundries. The girls who were admitted to the Laundries, never learned anything about religion - they only learned how to scrub laundry.

Photographs from the Inside of the Front door

On the front door there is a small little latch that can open from the inside to reveal a little vent/grill. From the inside you can peek out into the gardens. I imagine that some of the little girls used to look out longingly from the inside, only wishing they could play in the garden instead of working in silence and in misery. I took a number of photographs of this view.

The front door of the Convent

The front door of the Good Shepherd Convent, where the nuns first brought the young girls into the Institute, still stands present at the front of the college today. One thing that I noticed that was present in many of the stories from the survivors, was that the image of the red front door stood out very clearly in their memory.

I decided to silkscreen this image of the oppressive front door in a 3 color silkscreen - using a light yellow for the color of the college walls and a dominating, harsh red for the front door. I then screened the door in a black bitmap on top. This is still a work in progress. I am currently trying to get my hands on a transparent varnish that can be silkscreened with. I want to screen biblical quotes that combine both doors and quotes.

"For a wide door for effective work has opened to me.." 1 Corinthians 16:9

Magdalene Laundries - The Good Shepherd Convent - A New Direction

As part of my self initiated project which focused on modern day slavery, I began looking and exploring the Magdalene laundries. Our college, LSAD was once formally know as the Good Shepherd Convent. Many young girls were admitted into the Laundries with out any choice of their own and forced by the nuns to work long hours cleaning laundry and scrubbing floors as "penance for their sins". They were never paid and never received an education during their stay at the laundries. I feel that this is beginning to really ground my project and I can really connect with this concept of modern day slavery as it happened right here in college and the Laundries was only shut down in the 1990's.