Notes from the Margin
Group Exhibition: Gavin Devine, Emma McGuire, Ciaran Dunbar, Malcom Craig Gilbert & Rory O’Neill
Notes from the Margin brings together the work of five photographers who are addressing important social issues in Ireland today. All the artists work in a socially engaged way to present thoughtful representations of individuals and communities often seen as existing on the margins of society. Though diverse in theme and style, these artists work collaboratively with individuals and communities to make visible their concerns. By actively bringing their voices in from the margins they make the case for a more equal, inclusive, caring society.
Gavin Devine’s I am another is rooted in his deeply personal journey in coming to terms with his own sexuality. His sensitive portraits of gay men are the result of an engaged dialogue with each sitter around the process of ‘coming out’.
For the men portrayed here being gay is not a "fashionable fad" as some may see it but a real, complex, sometimes difficult and important aspect of each sitter's life. As part of the process of making the portraits Devine casually interviewed each of the subjects about their 'coming out'. He wanted to move beyond stereotypical representations of gay men by making portraits of men across a broad range of ages. The photographs capture the range of emotions that surface on the sitter’s faces during the course of these dialogues.
“Taking inspiration from my own ‘coming out’ experience I am using photography to explore what it is to be a gay man in Ireland today ...... Through my work I hope to highlight the obstacles and inner challenges gay men face when coming to terms with their sexuality.”
In Church Road, Emma McGuire documents her life a reluctant renter in suburban Dublin, where former family homes reflect the circumstances of their tenants, both existing in a state of suspension brought about by the economic crisis.
Church Road is an ongoing exploration of the experiences of a group of reluctant renters house sharing in the leafy suburbs of south Dublin. The spaces inhabited by the artist and her friends are run-down family homes – originally designed for suburban family life.
The economic crisis and resulting restriction in lending have led to a distortion in the property market. The uncertain circumstances of the renters are reflected in the homes they inhabit - both have been left to fend for themselves. Despite the inhabitants’ visible attempts to create a home for themselves these spaces bear witness to encroaching neglect.
“The renters represent a generation frozen by their circumstances, frustrated by the stagnant economic conditions – a common experience for many young people in Ireland. ”
Images from the series 'The Wise' © Ciaran Dunbar
In his series The Wise Ciaran Dunbar represents the strength of his own community in Muirhevna Mor, Dundalk. The work challenges the stigma of living in one of Ireland’s largest council housing estates.
‘The Wise’ was shot in Muirhevna Mór, one of Ireland’s largest council housing estates. It was built on the outskirts of Dundalk in the 1970s in response to the growing number of families moving south to escape the conflict in Northern Ireland.
Like in most council housing estates, there is a stigma attached to the people who live here. As a result of this stigma, Dunbar sometimes feels inferior to those on the outside, as if he has to prove himself. However, unlike many on the outside looking in, he can see the strength of the community within this area and witness its constant struggle to overcome negative stereotyping.
Sociologist Erving Goffman divided people into three categories - The Stigmatized, The Normal and The Wise. According to Goffman The Wise are those who have been given an insight into the life of the stigmatized person, which has made them ‘wise’ to their situation and sympathetic towards them.
“A ‘stigma’ causes a person to be mentally classified by others as an undesirable stereotype ....... My own family moved here from Portadown. I have lived in Muirhevna Mór for most of my life. This is my community – my normality.”
Malcolm Craig Gilbert’s work presents a personal insight into the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, resulting from his eighteen years serving as a police officer in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. He medically retired in 2003; as a means of rehabilitation, he took up photography, discovering a medium through which to express himself. His work has been selected for a number of international photography prizes and has featured in a number of major group exhibitions.
We are susceptible - ever open to suggestion. In Northern Ireland, social history and the implied mood on the streets are encapsulated on its gable walls. Studiously painted, and enforcing a cultural, political or communal identity, these sometimes fearful, sometimes propaganda led murals, are consciously imprinted upon its people with broken fragments conjoined to fit each trumped up cause - truth lost to the confines of what has been passed down, rehashed, retold.
“As each dysfunctional faction within the conflict imposes its will upon battle-weary communities their imagery subjugates how we should think. Any thoughts of singular discord and not towing the party line move quickly towards the sidelines in fear of mob-run retribution. At times literal, and at others just like the ‘Troubles’ themselves, a puzzle to be figured out, this series of work follows in a similar vein to that of the muralists, dictating the agenda to their version of events - accounts fetishised and adjusted to meet their own ends.
Through the manipulation of photography, and in the tradition of photomontage, my imaginary walls offer constructs from forbidden narratives that remained hidden, and unheard. Begun in 2014 this work is ongoing.”
“I served as a police officer for eighteen years during the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland and was medically retired due to the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Cleaved from a pastiche of personal memories, fears, anxieties, paranoia, and the things I never talked about, this work brings to life and shows without censor, my true feelings and emotions of those times.”
To make €19.10 & other stories, Rory O’Neill has worked for over 7 years with individuals in Direct Provision centres to chart their experience living in an institutional limbo. €19.10 refers to their weekly allowance from the state.
The average amount of time a person applying for refugee status spends living in Direct Provision (DP) is four years, with many spending up to ten years or more. The physical and mental stress experienced by people existing in this institutional limbo is exasperated by the small allowance each person receives. €19.10 is the weekly amount given to adults living in DP (children receive €9.60). There are over currently 4,300 members of the asylum community (one third of whom are children) living in the 34 centres across Ireland.
This series of images is part of a larger body of work which examines the complex issues around migration. O’Neill has worked with residents of Direct Provision over a long period of time to develop a collaborative participatory approach to the making of the images. The resulting work explores how the system actively discourages integration for people seeking to become active members of Irish society.
“This ongoing process of engagement with the asylum community continues to inform the artist’s practice of research and image making. The people presented here live within our communities and yet to many of us they remain marginalised or invisible.”
Exhibition dates
June 26th – August 9th 2015
Gallery information
Opening hours
Open 6 days:
Tuesday - Saturday, 11am - 5pm
Open Mondays by appointment for ongoing education, artists archiving and training.
Closed Sundays
Closed for bank holidays and public holidays
Admission is free
Find us
Gallery of Photography Ireland
Meeting House Square,
Temple Bar,
Dublin D02 X406, Ireland