Catriona Leahy: Aesthetics of disappearance
What resonated with me about Catriona Leahy work was the photography practises used within her work and the further process of how she uses print to display her work. The Albatross Factory building once would have been a symbolic representation of economic and industrial growth in the south on Ireland. Since the dutch owned fertiliser factory closed in the 1980’s this resulted in the loss of hundreds of jobs. Now The Albatross Factory is symbolic of how this time has been and how the economic and industrial push for ‘progression’ has left this landscape scarred by its past endeavours. This wonder in time is something I enjoy subjectively as It reminds me of the old chemical works and salt mining building from my home town which were left derelict as the economical procession was deemed to be somewhere else. Decaying urban architecture would be something my friends and I would explore greatly in our younger years as there was a mass fascination of how did this structure get here? which is something I still have a fascination with and want to explore creatively.
I have never seen a photograph used in use interesting process to me. I enjoy the way the rusted steel is used coming through the images echoing the feel of decay in this building. This process is something I wanted to look at within my own practice.
What I’ve also taken away from Catriona Leahy’s artist talk is the way the art interacts with the available space within the gallery. Making the viewer a part of the process as the piece changes with the interaction of the viewer’s eyes. I think this is a really interesting away to approach a photographic image.
From this artist talk, there is a few photographic processes I’m interested in which I didn’t know existed so I will be looking into these further.