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This geographically ambitious project navigates different locations on and under the seas surrounding Ireland, investigating controversial and traumatising events from Irish history. Through in-depth research into personal testimonies, various locations are photographed using a large format camera and printed traditionally onto silver gelatin paper. The testimonies are interpreted anew, disseminating the stories that are intrinsically connected to the Irish landscape. Subjects include areas of exceptionally high radioactivity, making the Irish Sea the most radioactive sea in the world; former pre-repeal abortion routes to the UK; and the sinking site of the RMS Lusitania, which resulted in 1,198 deaths. After each photograph is taken, a sample of sea water is collected from the location and is repeatedly brushed into the Irish oak frame, permanently permeating the wood with salt crystals. The framed photographs are installed so that they touch one another, allowing the molecular dynamics of the salt crystals to connect and move between the different woods, and by extension, the different locations. The salt acts as an organic factor of commonality, bonding these otherwise disparate locations in a shared trauma and offering the potential for healing.
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