The Domestic in Irish Photography

As a people with a long history of migration and dispossession, the notion of home is a deeply emotional one in Ireland. Although evoking a nostalgic sense of warmth and security, the lived reality of domestic life is often at odds with idealised representations. This exhibition considers what ‘home’ looks like in Ireland today and how it reflects wider societal changes.

No Place Like Home brings together work by leading established and early career artists who take us beyond the front door to reveal their experiences of home and domestic life, offering diverse perspectives on family, migration, mental health and economic disparity in Ireland.

This exhibition is being presented against the background of Ireland’s current housing crisis, with secure and affordable accommodation beyond reach for a large segment of the population. These artists propose new ways to visualise the complex realities of home and housing, placing these issues in a broader historical context, interrogating the distance between our notional ideas of home and the lived experience, and showing how the family unit is being redefined.

The featured artists provide a nuanced portrayal of Irish domesticity and the different places we call home. The works in No Place Like Home range from the intimate and personal to the political and social, charting many of the joys and tensions that define ‘home’ in 21st century Ireland. Together they reveal how our environments shape us in fundamental ways, and are themselves shaped by wider forces in Irish society.

Featured artists:
Ciarán Óg Arnold, Enda Bowe, Niamh Crowley, Caleb Daly, Ciarán Dunbar, Tatiana Evonuk, Clare Gallagher, Anthony Haughey, Jamin Keogh, Barialai Khoshhal, Joanne Mullin, Shannon Ritchie, Luke Ryan, Vera Ryklova, and Niamh Smith.