The Thousand-Year-Old Boy from the series, The Thousand-Year-Old Boy, 2015
Yvette Monahan
Yvette Monahan, The Thousand-Year-Old Boy from the series, The Thousand-Year-Old Boy, 2015
About the Artist:
Yvette Monahan is an Irish photographic artist from Sligo, who lives and works in Dublin. A graduate of the MFA Photography programme at the Belfast School of Art (2013), Yvette’s work has been exhibited extensively both in Ireland and internationally. Yvette also holds an MA in Geography and Economics (1999) from Trinity College Dublin. In 2020, she completed a diploma in Art and Design at NCAD. In recent years, Yvette’s practice has changed from looking at stories held in the landscape to looking at stories held within. Her current practice looks to further her understanding of three main ideas, namely intuition, transcendence, and narrative. She engages with different processes to investigate these precepts, incorporating photography, drawing, sculpture and painting. Yvette aims to create images that reflect the inner world and outer spaces.
Details: Archival pigment inkjet print on Hahnemühle Photo Baryta, 50x60cm (paper size), uneditioned print, produced 2021, acquired for the National Photography Collection 2022.
The Time of Dreaming the World Awake by Yvette Monahan
About the book
The Time of Dreaming the World Awake is a portrait of a place, a landscape of possibility.
‘This photographic body of work is based in a small region in Southern France. I was drawn there initially by the story of Bugarach, the ‘magic’ mountain. Bugarach was somehow connected to a Mayan prophecy which indicated that the world as we know it, would end on December 21st, 2012. The prophecy claimed that this date would mark the beginning of a new era for humanity, a new and sublime future. Bugarach was to be the first bastion of this modern Arcadia.
I felt that the landscape around Bugarach had a palpable charge and I was compelled to continuously return to photograph it throughout 2012. This idea of a new ideal destiny was appealing as it offered a sense of possibility. It allowed an allegorical landscape full of portents to exist, one that was beyond the visual reality.
In order to access the intangible within the landscape, I engaged my intuition, photographing people and places only when I felt moved to. I used this method of visual enquiry to try and understand the existential nature of this place.
Nothing happened last December, which was to be expected. Despite this, I realised how important it was for me to believe in the possibility of an idyll, even if it only existed in my mind.’ YM
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.