Photograms/ Rayographs

Letters From Home, solo exhibition

by Maureen Considine

at Mayfield Arts Centre, Cork

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Local artist, teacher and activist Brenda Stillwell opening the exhibition. During her speech on community and creativity Brenda quoted poets Langston Hughes

“Misery is when you heard

on the radio that the neighborhood

you live in is a slum but

you always thought its was home”

Maureen Considine – Artist’s Statement – Soul Image Series

“My photograms are mandala-like circles of light, tone and shade. This series, ‘Soul Images’, is influenced by Jungian psychoanalysis and the archetypes of the Self, the Anima and the Animus. The Self, at the centre of the psyche, is often represented as a circle/ mandala. The Anima/Animus is also the part of the psyche that is directed inward, and is in touch with the subconscious. I began making this work during a period of physical and psychic transition and the process was a catharsis.”

The objects chosen are cut-glass and crystal bowls, ashtrays, candle holders etc. These objects are associated with the domestic, the decorative, the feminine which positions the works as ‘other’ to the established attributes of western art.

A photogram is a photographic image made without a camera. In the darkroom, the object is placed directly onto the surface of light sensitive paper and then exposed to light, finally chemicals are used to develop the image. The photogram is a direct trace of the object to which it refers (like a footprint) but the image is also a distortion made by the bending of light through the object and resultant image is an abstraction of a 3 dimensional object collapsed into a 2 dimensional plane.

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Soul Yearnings by Maureen Considine and Kathryn Kelly

at Iontas Foyer Gallery, Castleblayney, Co Monaghan

Two person exhibition by Kathryn Kelly & Maureen Considine ‘Soul Yearnings’ is a joint exhibition of works by artists Maureen Considine and Kathryn Kelly. Working with the medium of photography, the lens acts as if to give a representative voice to the soul searching and internal longings of both artists during periods of personal significance and transition with the process being a catharsis.

Both artists utilise the lens/camera as a means of ‘capturing’. Kathryn Kelly’s efforts at capturing moments in time and place in her imagery are used as a metaphor to express the fragility and transience of life and the enduring quest for something beyond where we are presently positioned. The works function as representations, characters for personal narratives of longing and escape, remoteness and separation.

Maureen Considine’s photograms are created by placing an object onto the surface of light-sensitive paper and exposing it to light and then specific chemicals. A photogram is a direct trace of the object to which it refers, like a footprint but it is often distorted by the bending of light through the object. These works from the series, Searching for the Self/ Soul Images, are influenced by archetypal symbology. In Jungian symbology ‘the Self’, the archetype at the centre of the psyche, is often represented as a circle/mandala.

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Maureen Considine – Artist’s Statement – Soul Image Series A photogram is a photographic image made without a camera. In the darkroom, the object is placed directly onto the surface of light sensitive paper and then exposed to light, finally chemicals are used to develop the image. The photogram is a direct trace of the object to which it refers (like a footprint) but the image is also a distortion made by the bending of light through the object and resultant image is an abstraction of a 3 dimensional object collapsed into a 2 dimensional plane.

My photograms are mandala like circles of light, tone and shade. This series, ‘Soul Images’, is influenced by Jungian psychoanalysis and the archetypes of the Self, the Anima and the Animus. The Self, at the centre of the psyche, is often represented as a circle/mandala. The Anima/Animus is also the part of the psyche that is directed inward, and is in touch with the subconscious. I began making this work during a period of physical and psychic transition andthe process was a revelatory catharsis.

Kathryn Kelly – Artist’s Statement – Whispered Beginnings Series ‘Whispered beginnings’ is a current series of landscape-based photographic works, which were taken during a time spent living abroad, relaying a period of personal significance. Working with the medium of photography I undertook to document my observations of the natural environment as a means to create and reveal accounts of emotional, psychological and sensory experiences. The works which are figurative in nature are an exploration of our position in and connection to place and time within our outer surroundings and inner experience.