by Palaroide
do irlandês gareth mcconnell
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My Grandfather's House, 2002
Photographs of interiors and details from a deceased relative's home, shortly before the contents were cleared for auction. The interior of the house is shrouded in darkness while outside daylight prowls. A distressed 1960s aesthetic; flock wallpaper, florid soft furnishings, chintz and kitsch in the form of a life's belongings, with all their intimate associations fall out of focus. The centres of domestic life; the kitchen sink, the bedroom, the dining table, the couch are emptied of familial presence and activity. They become diffused in an insistent light that strikes through blinds and curtains. Absence pervades, memories and daydreams form, drift and dissolve into a relentless present.
Interiors and details from an abandoned undertaker's premises in Carrickfergus. The remains of rooms, where the deceased were prepared for burial, are preserved in their own state of decay. Damp walls rot, plaster cracks, papered surfaces succumb to fungal patina. Details on interior fittings echo images of the delicate trim on burial garments, palls and drapes. Almost all of these funereal rooms are tended by flowers. Flowers, and their abundant symbolisms, stretch through spaces mired in the conventions of death.
