The Passenger
Ailbhe Ní Bhriain
PhotoIreland
English
Softcover
Edition of 200
32 pages
148 x 210 mm
2016
ISBN 978095701823
This photographic series combines imagery from four disparate sources: neo-classical sculpture, west of Ireland landscapes, found images and the studio setting. The processes are quick and playful, using simple collage techniques to surprise the imagery into a new and permeable series of connections. There is an attempt to collapse the binaries and conventions suggested by the source imagery, to reveal the representational and cultural constructs at play. But there are also recurring motifs across the series, which suggest the imposition of an alternative, if obscure, continuity or meaning. The work takes its title from the Nabokov short story The Passenger. In the story a seemingly dramatic plot is built and is then exposed as a series of disconnected details, conflated briefly in the imagination. In these prints the device of both presenting and taking apart the props of narrative is used to test how we read an image, leaving the viewer to, in Nabokov’s phrase, ‘notice and fondle details’. The series to date comprises ten images, printed as digital pigment prints onto photo baryta paper at various sizes. Designed by Ángel Luis González Fernández.
(Source:https://newirishworks.com/project/ailbhe-ni-bhriain/)
About the Artist:
Ailbhe Ní Bhriain is an Irish artist whose practice incorporates film, computer generated imagery, collage, tapestry, print and installation. Ní Bhriain’s work is rooted in an exploration of imperial legacy, human displacement and the Anthropocene. These intertwined subjects are approached through an associative use of narrative and a painstakingly crafted visual language that verges on the surreal. Ní Bhriain sidesteps directive positions and familiar binaries, exposing instead the layers of ambiguity and contradiction embedded in these fraught issues. The resulting worlds she creates are at once idiosyncratic, irresistible and deeply unsettling.
ailbhenibhriain.com
(Source: https://ailbhenibhriain.com/about)
About The Series
Selected by an international panel of 23 professionals, New Irish Works brings you a selection of 20 projects and 20 photographers representing the diverse range of practices coming from Ireland. New Irish Works 2016 is a year long project of 10 presentations and 20 publications that aims to highlight the great moment Irish Photography is experiencing.
newirishworks.com
(Source: https://newirishworks.com/about/)
About the Publisher
PhotoIreland grows the reputation of Irish artists globally through a 360 degree support system and platform for contemporary photography, activated through a diversity of projects. These include events such as PhotoIreland Festival and Halftone print fair amongst others; resources such as the PhotoIreland Collection, a specialised research library of photobooks, and Ireland’s Art Bookshop, The Library Project; via publishing with projects such as OVER Journal and TLP Editions; professional development support through networking and consultancy opportunities; and empowering early and mid-career photographers via our international partnerships, most relevantly through Creative Europe co-funded platforms such as FUTURES and Parallel.
https://photoireland.org/
(Source: https://photoireland.org/about-photoireland/)
