Self-portraits, from the series Tomorrow is Sunday, 2014-2020
Miriam O’Connor
Miriam O’Connor, Self-portraits, from the series Tomorrow is Sunday, 2014-2020
About the Artist:
Miriam O’Connor is an award-winning artist from Co. Cork. Educated at TU, Dublin, she completed a Research Masters at Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art Design & Technology in 2011. In her practice she draws inspiration from the sights, sounds and language of everyday life. She is curious about the multifaceted roles photography occupies in culture and the manner in which this persuasive medium permeates the way we engage with the world around us. Developed over many years, O’Connor’s Tomorrow is Sunday project reflects on the day-to-day demands of farming life. Specifically, it engages with her return to the family farm following the death of her brother in 2013, exploring photography’s role in communicating the magnitude of this life-changing event. Tomorrow is Sunday was published in conjunction with A Woman’s Work by the Gallery of Photography Ireland (2021). The work was also staged in solo shows in Macroom Town Hall and the Ashford Gallery at The Royal Hibernian Academy and Sirius Arts Centre. In addition to her art practice, and farming, O’Connor also lectures part-time at Griffith College Dublin.
Details: Archival pigment inkjet print on Hahnemühle Photo Baryta, 50x70cm (paper size), uneditioned print, produced 2021, acquired for the National Photography Collection 2022.
Tomorrow Is Sunday by Miriam O’Connor
Special edition available
‘Following the death of my brother Jerome, I returned home to be with my mother and sister and to help run the family farm. That was in 2013, and since then, against the backdrop of everyday farming life, photography and my relationship to it has taken many twists and turns. In the beginning, I welcomed it for its ability to help me navigate the chaos of intense grief. Later, I resented it for making light of or romanticising such a tragic period in my life, in our lives. Sometime later, I surmised that if photography was going to make things better, or serve any function at all, then it had better be put to work.
Changing course, I began to use photography in conjunction with routine farm tasks. I embarked on a series of self-portraits over an entire farming year. I made lists. I wrote stories. I compiled inventories of animals, rocks, water troughs, stakes and gates. I assembled these photographs into small logbooks which acted like micro manuals for survival. I became obsessed with a tree which, over time, became a huge source of comfort, a place that I consistently returned to time and time again when I was trying to find my way.
Tomorrow is Sunday is the sum of all of these paths. This book represents an attempt to make sense of that time. It is my way of acknowledging the complexities of grief and the magnitude of navigating a way through this life-changing event’ Miriam
Tomorrow is Sunday by Miriam O’ Connor
Design: Miriam O’’Connor & Niall McCormack
Editing: Miriam O’’Connor & Tanya Kiang
Published by: Gallery of Photography Ireland
Printed in Ireland by Impress Printing Works
Year: 2020
Format: Hardback
Size: 210 x 255 mm
Edition: 500
Pages: 96 pp
About the National Photography Collection:
The National Photography Collection builds on the Gallery’s sustained commitment to supporting artists in the development and promotion of their work. Through collaboration, we hope to grow the collection as an archive repository offering an overview of photographic practice in Ireland.
As an essential critical and historical resource, the National Photography Collection is an exciting initiative for the Gallery and for the future of Irish photography. We are deeply honoured that the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins has agreed to be Patron of the Collection.
The artists featured in the Collection are:
Ciarán Óg Arnold; Enda Bowe; Noel Bowler; Ala Buisir; Simon Burch; Dorje de Burgh; Krass Clement; Shia Conlon; Martin Cregg; Mark Curran; Ciaran Dunbar; John Duncan; Tessy Ehiguese; David Farrell; Kevin Fox; Paul Gaffney; Clare Gallagher; Emer Gillespie; Karl Grimes; Anthony Haughey; Seán Hillen; Patrick Hogan; Tobi Isaac-Irein; Dragana Jurišić; Jamin Keogh; Jialin Long; Markéta Luskačová; Shane Lynam; Alen MacWeeney; Dara McGrath; Moira McIver; Yvette Monahan; Tony Murray; Brian Newman; Kate Nolan; Miriam O'Connor; Kenneth O'Halloran; Mandy O'Neill; Tony O'Shea; Pete Smyth; Nigel Swann; Harry Thuillier Jr; George Voronov and Róisín White.