Artworks
Narrative
During my time in Lisbon I have explored the concept of observing the urban landscape as a habitat for people. Observing how I usually seek out natural areas as a grounding experience and how I navigated translating that to the new urban environment surrounding me. I became fascinated how mundane and domestic materials were a comforting presence when surrounded by unfamiliar buildings and streets.
I explored the idea of inhabiting a space and signifiers of inhabitants, through documentation, writing and film photography. Things such as hanging wires, or draping plant or drying clothes provided a sense of connection and familiarity, a representation of day-to-day lives, reaffirming others presence in own urban isolation.
Particularly observing wires and clothes lines, their overhead trailing presence providing a visual indication of peoples homes. Combining domestic and found materials allowed me to create structure that emulate the web-like linear structures which quietly humanise the urban landscape.
Biography
Mairead Normanly is a visual artist, recent graduate of Limerick School of Art & Design with a B.A. in Fine Art, she employs a multidisciplinary approach that integrates painting, photography, printmaking, and experimental use of materials. Her practice explores the intricate relationship between humans and the spaces they inhabit.
Her observations of human interactions with their environments, combining natural and domestic materials to examine the organic and abstract structures that shape and disrupt the spaces we reside in. These forms and structures can often be seen as disorderly or visual interruptions within a space, when in fact they are a symbol of individuals surrounding presence. Exploring how materials can signify and serve as a comforting reminder of occupancy and inhabitance of spaces, can help shift the observation of urban landscapes as being design concepts and to consider them as habitats.