a concentric series of ovals with a photograph of beach stones inside

places and non-places

painting, digital collage

2007-08

Inspired by French ethnologist and author Marc Augé's book Non-Places, Places and Non-Places was based on the hypothesized idea of "non-place". Essentially a non-place is a building or area that causes no memories or holds no identity. Examples include shopping centres, airports and storage units. Although these places serve as functional spaces, they do not inspire the creation of any solid memory, as they are not a place in themselves, but simply functional

The paintings and digital works created for this project attempt to associate some form of ideological memory with the viewer toward these non-places. The project began in 2007 and was completed in 2008. Some of the work was created while living and working at the Leitrim Sculpture Centre, while the rest was done on my final year degree at IT Sligo Fine Art.

a painting of a storage unit exterior in a bleak, placeless landscape

Feet Squared in Notions of Exterior, 2008, Oil and Wax on canvas, 62 x 45cm

exhibited and sold at the Claremorris Open Exhibition 2008.

a painting of a storage unit, bleak and grey with no doors

Caramel, 2007, Oil and wax on canvas, 134 x 199cm

exhibited at Push Remote Arts, Sligo in 2009.

abstract painting with shapes and bright colours. a person with their hands in the foreground

An Alternative to Packing, 2008, Oil on canvas, 62 x 45cm

exhibited at the Joan Clancy Gallery in 2008.

an abstract painting with a lot iof imagery, hooked around a hexagon shape and using rusty colours

After Chaos We Rebuild, 2008, Oil and wax on canvas, 125 x 207cm

abstract painting. an orange building in the background. Purple lines that look architectural. Top-left are two yellow boxes like signs for toilets in an airport.

Ekala (Ghosts in Non-Places), 2007, Oil and wax on canvas, 106 x 142cm

dark painting of a blue crane nearly invisible on a dark green background

Farewell County Dubai, 2008, Oil and wax on canvas, 150 x 119cm

Painting of a warehouse interior, sparse and nearly empty

Feet Cubed in Notions of Interior, 2008, Oil on canvas, 61 x 45cm

abstract painting with a chunky airplane in the background, and an airport gangway in mid. Strange, obscure objects front-left suggest e-waste dumps

Memories In The Walls of a Non-Place, 2008, Oil and wax on canvas, 150 x 119cm

exhibited as part of final year show at IT Sligo. Foregrounded e-waste and background of airport imagery influenced future projects.

painting of a green mist, computer monitor in bottom-left not quite finished, and pylons are visibile through the mist

The Essential, The Universal, 2008, Oil and wax on canvas, 188 x 135cm

exhibited at the Claremorris Open Exhibition 2008.

chaotic painting with cityscape, sections of airports, storage units and other abstract imagery collaged together

Supermetropolitonia, 2008, Oil and wax on canvas, 324 x 199cm

a collage with an office unit in the background and text layered over it, with information about the Pompeii disaster

Like Pompeii, 2008, Digital print on paper, 23 x 22.5cm

This work was exhibited in Waterford in 2008.

painting with bright colours, a person in an orange jumpsuit in the middle, and symbols visible on each side

The Mirror, 2007, Oil and wax on canvas, 60 x 60cm

a collage showing several CCTV cameras looking at one another in a dark image

Under Identity, 2008, Digital print on paper, 32 x 26cm

painting of a fire esscape up to a water tower with no building attached. In the distance is an apartment.

Utilitarian, 2008, Oil on canvas, 220 x 169cm

a collage with an office unit in the background and text layered over it, with information about the Pompeii disaster

Woke Up and Thought This Ain’t Exactly Heaven…Does It Get Any Worse?, 2008, Digital print on paper, 21 x 28cm

painting with layered imagery, including a surgeon smoking a cigarette and a giant hand catching a fetus

Prometheus' Gift (The separation of man from beast), 2007, Oil and wax on canvas, 180 x 320cm

influences

things I read or saw that helped create this project

philip armstrong as painting: division and displacement (2001)
marc augé non-places: introduction to an anthropology of supermodernity (1992)
lucy lippard the lure of the local (1997)
georges perec species of spaces (1974)
angelika taschen, burkhard riemschneider Kippenberger (2003)
yi-fu tuan space and place (1976)

collaborators

colleagues who worked on this project with me

mom & dad

financial support

people or organisations who helped fund the work

hours and hours on minimum wage