Galleri Image
is pleased to present::
MIRIAM O'CONNOR (IRL)
ATTENTION SEEKERS
6th January - 12th February 2012

We spend much
of our daily lives caught up in busy routines, unobservant of
the curious details that make up the visual world we are passing
through. Irish artist Miriam O'Connor's photographic series Attention
Seekers lingers on these often overlooked traces, singling them
out with an attentive and subtle gaze that imbues them with a
mysterious and magical vitality. Attention Seekers is concerned
with the representation of everyday scenes, spaces and people
encountered by the photographer, and O'Connor has a unique talent
for discovering infinite possibilities of image-making amidst
the quotidian banality, slicing out those details which petition
for attention.
The subjects of these images are
conceived of as possessing an ambiguous agency of their own, discharging
a kind of magnetism that it is impossible for the photographer
to ignore. They solicit attention - that of the photographer and,
ultimately, of the viewer - with their strangely insistent and
often subtly unsettling juxtapositions, shapes and colours. Modest
or minute elements recur as motifs across the series, where, time,
location and horizons are regularly obscured, appearing outwardly
irrelevant. The photographer does not venture forth into the world
with the intent of taming it with her camera, but instead responds
to the demands that the everyday environment - in all its uncertainty,
obscurity, ridiculousness and strange beauty - presses upon her.
Full of ambiguous clues and mischievous suggestions, the images
represent, above all, a deep curiosity around looking and seeing,
and a preoccupation with the impression that these scenes in some
way return the gaze. Attention Seekers depicts these subjects
with an almost claustrophobic intimacy that leaves the viewer
with an intense feeling of being a special guest in O'Connor's
universe.
Miriam O'Connor (IRL) was born in
County Cork, Ireland, and currently lives and works in Dublin.
She holds a BA in photography from the Dublin Institute of Technology
and has recently completed a Research Masters at the Institute
of Art, Design & Technology, Dun Laoghaire, Dublin. In addition
to her artistic practice, she is also an educator, teaching courses
on practical and creative approaches to photography.
For more information see www.miriamoconnor.com
In connection with the exhibition,
Galleri Image will produce a catalogue published by PogoBooks
in collaboration with the artist.
More information: www.pogobooks.de
OPENING Friday 6th January 16-19
The artist will be present.
ARTIST TALK Saturday 7th January at 14.00
The exhibition is generously supported by:

