OONAGH YOUNG GALLERY, DUBLIN, 2022 | Wherever I Am, I Am What is Missing
These sculptures, with their symbolic deconstruction and reconstruction of home, allude to personal narratives and communities facing displacement due to violence. They speak to a universal yearning for a place, time, and people to belong to. The theme of home and belonging is one that resonates with all of us, and the sculptures serve as a powerful reminder that once we leave home, we can never rebuild it in its original form. This is especially true in the stories of migrants, who must create new homes and meaningful relationships in the face of opposition and difference.
Built from twigs, the broken and discarded bits of trees cut from their support system, the objects call scaffolding and other provisional structures to mind. I use mostly birch, a tree native to Ireland; though, known for its resilience and adaptability, birch can flourish anywhere. Twine, in this work, embodies an innate desire to repair and bridge distances physically, emotionally, and metaphorically. These fragile and vulnerable sculptures present an amalgam of form and aesthetic, broken, repaired, replaced, and reassembled in hybrid configurations. They have no mass, weight, or density like a drawing in and of space. They imply the husks of an object that no longer exists.
