What remains when we disappear from living memory? When all that's left are traces and fragments of our existence, what was our purpose—or did we even have one?
These questions arise as I piece together the life of my great aunt Dr. Annie Deane, who passed before I was born. A pioneering spirit, she redefined a woman's place in the world, yet her legacy feels elusive. All That Is Solid reveals how everything exists in a state of transformation, where boundaries between past and present, memory and imagination, life and death, become fluid and permeable.
This work is not an attempt to capture Annie's life in a traditional sense, but rather to establish a relationship with her in the liminal spaces where memory meets imagination, and presence meets absence. Through found and artificially generated images, amidst a shifting landscape, I look for the essence of a woman who broke boundaries but left surprisingly few footprints. In doing so, I question not just how we remember, but what we choose to preserve, what we allow to transform, and how we might find alternative ways to appreciate those who lived outside the conventional narratives of their time.
This work has been supported by Galway County Council's Artist Support Scheme.