Róisín Conlon

Limerick School of Art and Design

Project Statement:

Big Dark Room

Big Dark Room centres on just one of the many emotionally charged spaces of my childhood home – the attic. This room acts a repository of the possessions, memories, and thoughts too difficult to confront and yet too onerous to let go of.

Brought to fruition through a lyrical and photographical balance of subjective and objective perceptions, I engage with philosophical thought on the symbolism of the house as both a protective and feared space, the influence of architecture on our experience and mentality and the disquieting slippage between what seems homely and what is unequivocally unhomely through an uncanny lens.

French philosopher Gaston Bachelard writes in The Poetics of Space:

“If one would ask us what is the most precious benefaction of the house, we would say: the house accommodates dreaming, the house protects the dreamer, the house allows us to dream in peace.”

What then occurs when the protective qualities and peace within the house are relinquished. The fear and loss of control over our perceived safe space can be hard to decipher when considering how perception can be both subjective and objective. I present a body of work coded through architectural and material properties simultaneously imbued with a personal narrative of longing and grief.

Artist Bio:

Róisín Conlon is a Fine Art Graduate specialising in the discipline of Print Contemporary Practice, a course she feels has allowed her to find her voice as an artist. Through implementing the principals and rigorous research practices that occur naturally as a printmaker, Róisin has developed her practice to include a multi-disciplinary approach. She is always seeking out new possibilities of bringing her subject matter to life through the experimental merging of traditional and contemporary mediums as well as reviving obsolete formats and technologies as she engages not only with printmaking techniques but also works with digital, video, sound and installation. Róisín’s most recent work is born from her exploration of photography, focusing on bringing the atmosphere and sensibility of the photographed environment to life.

Upon completion of her Fine Art Degree in Contemporary Printmaking, Róisín will be undertaking a Professional Masters of Art Education and Design Media at LSAD alongside the continued development of her practice as an emerging visual artist.