Lacuna Kate Nolan

Lacuna was made for the Dummies & Books from FOLIO 2024/25 – Online Masterclass on Photobook-Making. Lacuna considers the physical and psychological impact of partition on the young people of the Irish borderlands. It documents the Irish frontier as a post-conflict space, challenging the fixity of the territorial border by providing a counter-narrative through the experience of youth. Born after the Good Friday Agreement, they have never experienced a ‘hard’, militarised border. In the centenary of partition and in the light of Brexit, the border is invisible to them. In their daily life, moving freely between the North and the South is a given. In this project, space is given to these, usually overlooked, middle spaces whose destinies are irremediably determined by politics, through photographs, audio-visual pieces, testimonies, archival footage and contemporary visual materials. Thus, facilitating a space for the young people of the Irish borderlands to write their own histories. Through a series of composite archival pieces the past and present is compressed, proposing new relations of timelines and voices. Lacuna transcends the Irish case and appeals to all histories of division. Its invitation to listen to the young people in the borderlands embraces the act of ‘listening’ as a firm political position. It employs myth and imagination to explore and conceptually, represent the affectively and territory visually.
(Source: https://www.katenolan.ie/info)

About the Artist
Kate Nolan is an Irish visual artist based in Dublin, Ireland, focused on extended photographic stories that examine the nature of identity. Drawn to “in-between” places, she is intrigued by the effects of shifting histories of areas in flux. Nolan collaborates with local communities over extended periods to give voice to these changes. Her latest project LACUNA, is a multi-disciplinary project considering the contemporary experience, physical and psychological impact of the partition on the children of the borderlands. LACUNA is currently showing as part of ARCHIPELAGO in the Royal Hibernian Academy, Sep-Dec 25 and has been exhibited widely since it’s first solo in the Photo Museum Ireland, Dublin, Ireland in September – October 2017. This work has been funded by the Irish Arts Council and Irish Research Council. Her work is held in public and private collections in Japan, USA, France, Portugal, Mexico, UK and Ireland. Co-founder of Island Photographers, an artist-led group raising awareness, understanding and engagement with contemporary photography within Ireland.
https://www.katenolan.ie
(Source: https://www.katenolan.ie/about)