Martina Cleary, visual artist

This work marks the final stage of a project begun in 2008 and supported by the Create, Phase I - Artist in the Community Scheme. It was inspired by research conducted at Adapt Services Limerick, Clare Haven Ennis and Clare Women’s Network. In researching gender-based violence and asking, “What was the turning point for you?, I found that it was often a woman’s instinct to save her children that allowed her to escape harrowing circumstances. My decision to use the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone as a metaphorical device for these images, came from a need to find distance and preserve anonymity. While earlier images created during this research are more violent and hard-hitting, the works in ‘Turning Point’ explore the regenerative or redemptive potential of the mother-daughter relationship. My intention was to reintroduce the psychological complexity of an archetypal story as a means to navigate and transcend harsher aspects of contemporary experience. My work often combines elements of ‘tableaux vivant’ and ‘documentary’ photography. While I enjoy using the ‘constructed’ or ‘performative’, I am aware of the power of photography as a perceived language of ‘hard fact’. I enjoy working in the grey areas between, which to me is like memory, sometimes factual, at other times influenced by the mnemonic environments collectively owned through storytelling or myth. I am concerned with finding meaningful ways of engagement with real issues affecting the everyday lives of my subjects, while also touching upon deeper truths carried through collective visualizations, particularly within photography.

he work was shown for the first time through solo exhibition at the RHA Ashford in 2011. A selection from the portfolio was also published by Prism Magazine.

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