Signals Exhibition Catalogue 2024

SIGNALS

SIGNALS

Belfast Exposed 6th-29th June 2024

The 2024 MFA Photography Exhibition showcases the photographic works of 10 international artists associated with the MFA photography program at Ulster University, Belfast School of Art.

In an era of symbolic societal structural change this photography collective establishes navigational points through journeys of introspection, contemplation, and modes of existence. Exploring themes such as consciousness and the physical realm, growth, transformation, belief and faith.

ARTISTS

Allie Crewe

Aoife Kelly de Klerk

Jeremiasz Ojrzyński

Natalia Garmashova

Paul Thomas

Ryan Gallagher

Samuel Booth

Sean Doyle

Siobhán Dempsey

Úrsula Rénique

Gather the Bones

Childhood abuse, a crime often shrouded in secrecy within families or closed communities, is a silent epidemic. Allie Crewe’s ‘Gather the Bones’ urges us to bear witness to the pain and subsequent journey towards healing that unfolds when individuals embrace transformation.

Within a forest, where childhood memories whisper, and women reconnect with the suppressed parts of themselves, this collaborative work reveals a story through a stark interplay of light and shadow, staged narratives, and intimate portraits. ‘Gather the Bones’ invites us to explore the enduring silence that has failed to safeguard children.

alliephotography31@gmail.com

www.allie-crewe.uk

GRACE

GRACE consists of three bodies of work, exploring the concept of the relational, within the context of a Christian faith.

After returning to Ireland after 14 years in South Africa, If They Don’t Speak (I) explores the idea of rocks crying out in the absence of conversations around faith in Ireland. The photographs are meditations within this new landscape, and documents solitary paths tread in literal exploration of the scripture Luke 19:40, six hundred kilometers, in five countries, over a four month period. Testimony (II) charts the experience of faith in relation to a life’s journey. For the believer an authentic relationship with Jesus brings a revelation of Love, manifested through lived experience. In collaboration with 18 believers, the work represents a six month process undertaken by each individual to know and take ownership of their story. These testimonies were then scribed by light against the South African sky in the location each person identifies as home. Sumballo (III) is a photographic interpretation of the experience of faith. Fishing, photography and faith are acts of hope in things not yet seen; a surrender, a coming in and going out, a way of being.

GRACE invites the viewer into a contemplative space where time slows and solace offered in the prospect of the relational.

A World in a Glitch

A World in a Glitch navigates the contemporary subject of human-machine collaboration and its implications for selfperception, consciousness and identity in the digital age. The work serves as a metaphor for the complex relationship between human agency and technological advancement.

The series of surrealist self-portraits is motivated by the artist’s impulsive need for a bridge between the lived experience and the virtual world.

Contextualised by the artist’s childhood experience in nature, the photographs are grounded in the organic stylistic approach of 19th century photography and augmented by AI-generation – creating the artist’s aesthetic underpinning.

Against this backdrop, the work delves into the complexities of human emotion and identity through the medium of ‘analogue-generative photography’. By melding a traditional large-format photographic technique with novel AI image generation the work blurs the boundaries between human creativity and algorithmic fabrication, and consequently explores the influence of technology on consciousness.

The Space Within

In the quiet glow of nighttime – surrendering to the humidity fogging the camera lens – the allure of empty squares and illuminated streets forms a symbolic terrain towards an introspective odyssey, trailing from the post-Soviet Era. Amid the pristine and almost otherworldly spaces, Natalia Garmashova navigates the emotional landscape of expatriate life, capturing the anticipation of seemingly alien experiences within the urban confines of a compound.

The Space Within functions as an evocative portrayal of an artist seamlessly weaving between the known and the unknown where the self is yet to be fully understood. It is a poetic realization, where concepts of identity and belonging transcend physical spaces, dwelling in the act of experience and the realm of the subconscious.

www.vbartroom.com

Natalia V. Garmashova

Still/Moving

Still/Moving (work in progress) explores the temporal paradoxes inherent in the photographic process and the act of locating oneself within a space.

Through the geometry of domestic space and its objects, Thomas challenges notions of home and belonging, seeking solace in the darkest corners. In a constant interplay of dialectical dynamics between individual agency and external determinants, the ‘bed’,epitomizing comfort and safety, transforms into a landscape of solitude and the determinant of ‘the self’.

Embracing human experience, chronological time proves of little aid; only the present moment suffices. The bed distils this present moment, where stillness and movement, consciousness and unconsciousness, coalesce as one.

Paul Thomas

pethomas.uk@gmail.com

@paul.thomas.186 (Instagram)

On Belief

Ryan Gallagher’s large format portraits of congregational and faith representatives in Northern Ireland, serve as individual gestures from his collaboration with each subject. The work invites the viewer into a dialogue that puts emphasis on the human within the context of the sublime.

The images reveal the creeds and faiths that have emerged in recent decades alongside the longestablished denominations which have shaped the turbulent history of this remote point on the western edge of Europe. It serves as both an historical document of a society in transformation as well as a personal inquiry into faith.

Ryan Gallagher

The Pain Monster

The Pain Monster is an intimate portrait of the struggle I have faced living with chronic pain due to a traumatic brain injury. Like for many others who have suffered similar injuries, this agony is a relentless ‘monster’ that lurks within me and remains hidden. Its unseen attacks are constant. It never leaves me. It is a part of my life.

In the form of a photograph, by using camera movements, and prolonged time exposures, I have found a way to confront this pain and give it a face. I finally have clarity and have been able to deal with the reality that I face daily. The Monster has been exposed.

This project is a hope of solace and inspiration to all who struggle with physical and mental pain. It has been a strategy to find a way to tame and conquer this suffering.

Clootie Wells

Clootie Wells embody a mystical connection to nature, a place where faith and folklore converge. Through my photography, I seek to capture the ethereal essence of these sacred sites, where colourful cloth offerings flutter in the breeze like whispers of devotion. Each piece of fabric tells a story of hope, healing, and tradition, weaving a tapestry of spiritual significance.

In my work, I aim to convey the timeless ritual of tying a cloth to a tree, symbolising a prayer or plea for assistance, a tangible manifestation of faith in the unseen. Through the lens of my camera, I invite viewers to immerse themselves in the otherworldly beauty and profound mystery of Clootie Wells, inviting them to contemplate the interconnectedness of the physical and spiritual realms.

Making Straws / An Dreoilín

In the West Kerry Gaeltacht, past and present are understood through a language of costume, defiance and continuum. Here, history rests comfortably and tradition is used not to parody the past but to understand it.

Wren costumes, derived from pre-Christian folklore, are made throughout the winter season and worn by members of the community on the Dingle peninsula. Subverting any notion of ethnographic methodologies, Siobhán Dempsey, through individual collaborations, reaches an understanding of the craft and beliefs that lie behind this display of ritual.

Making Straws / An Dreoilín is the contemporisation of an ancient identity.

Siobhán Dempsey

Contact details

www.siobhandempsey.ie siobhan.dempsey.ie@gmail.com @siobhan_dempsey_photography (Instagram)

Routine Strata (School run)

Routine Strata unravels the intricate tapestry woven by the everyday experiences of life, where the concept of repetition becomes a state of contradiction; a magnified perception that pervades the familiar, and where nothing is realised as the same.

Ursula Rénique’s photographic work layers the seemingly mundane moments of the daily school run in Dubai. For a mother entrenched in the rhythm of this routine, photography, through collage and the single image, offers a poignant means of bearing witness to life’s fleeting moments, a representation of her family, herself, and the society she is immersed in.

Ursula argues for the profound significance found within the ordinary, and the gesture of simplicity, within life’s routines.