From Dublin, Ireland, Niamh Smith is a visual artist that works with photography to create an expressive, intimate language. A central focus of Smith’s work is concerned with Irish female sexual identity and the structures of control from the 1920s to present day in Ireland.

In collaboration with survivors, Institutions of Home traces the history of ‘Fallen Women’, who were forced into religious institutions known as “Mother and Baby Homes” to give birth, be cleansed of their sins, and commonly, put back into society without their child.

Ireland’s past relationship with Catholicism is intertwined with government policy. These institutions were firmly embedded into the Irish psyche and law, with the objective of creating a new national identity for Irish females that was based on traditional values of religious and social teachings.

The work on show here represents a larger body of work conveying the poignant experiences of silenced women and the unknown children that lived this history. These are shared intimate stories that raise uncomfortable and concealed truths about a country’s past.

The camera is turned to spaces and surfaces that contain a hidden, and sometimes uncomfortable tension. Places are familiar, yet burdened with a deeper meaning. What first appear to be simple images, are layers of meaning and complexity, fused together by Portraits, Landscapes and Manifestations. It is a procession of contemplation towards the interpretation of these structures of control and their repercussions.