‘Buildings lay uninhabited, in semi dereliction,
lost in an interval of redundant time.’

The above is a quote from text I wrote in relation to a site specific exhibition I had in 2007.  The oft times undocumented and overlooked aspect of the man made environment is something that has engaged my interest for a while and since the 2007 exhibition I have continued to focus my gaze in that direction.

The images I present depict a feeling of isolation through the very nature of abandonment, although there is also a deep sense of place through vestiges of the human presence, introduced into the compositions with man made structures. In a veneration of the mundane and ordinary, these man made structures are often the undocumented 19thc relics in the changing landscape of 21st c Ireland. The vernacular architecture of corrugated iron sheds, old shacks, abandoned wooden huts, historic mills, warehouses and barracks, mostly derelict and desolate, provide me with a rich source of inspiration. Structures in the countryside which have been subsumed into the landscape, clawed back by nature and the elements, while others in towns and cities, wait in the wings, poised on the cusp of change.

The painting titled The Changing Tent –also man made- has entered the arena of past historic, originating as it does in the earlier part of the 20th c,  and no longer required for the purpose of modesty in this part of the world.

Angie Shanahan, Painter