No.21 Disco
The Era of Disco - where we spent every weekend meeting up with our closest friends in the same corner or seating of these nightclubs - where our taste in music was forged through the only songs we would get up to dance to!, be that Goth, Rock, Electro, Dance, Reggae or just the Slowset. These places of music & dance helped form and shape who we are and our friends, who will still throw a shape or two when brought back in time by the radio… “Are we Dancing or what!!!”
Mark Smith
No.20 Influence
“Influence” is a typographic exhibition designed by the 1st year students from the Ba in Graphic Design and the Ba (Hons) in Graphic and Digital Design from Athlone Institute of Technology. Led and curated by design lecturers Tara Cullen and Margo McNulty. Women from the 1950s, nature, 90’s sitcoms, family, Egypt, discount codes, fantasy, and home are some of the assorted influences that inspired the design of the final characters.
1st Year Students, AIT Athlone
No.19 Hiraeth
Hiraeth means “a longing to be where your spirit lives, where your soul belongs". The students portray themselves as emerging from the shadows, with their identities revealed by the glowing lights of the letters that spell out the word ‘Hiraeth’. They used light painting techniques to conjure the intangible meaning of the word and define in the darkness of the studio, the shapes and forms resulting from their own movements and actions.
Year 8 students from St Richard Gwyn Flint Student, Flint, North Wales
No.18 Words
Music is part of our identity. I have chosen quotes from songs representing loss and longing, of loving and living. Do you recognise any of them?
Ciara MacCormac
No.17 The Tree of Life
It is a visual metaphor in which a tree represents your life and the various elements that make it up! – past, present, and future. I m looking at my identity by looking at my past present and future while using the branches of the trunk to show my connections to this and my connection to Europe and the wider world.
Sharon Maer
No.16 Printing The Past
Printing the Past explores the idea of identity from the perspective of place and time. The artworks are created using type from the Kells Print Studio which has not been used in the last thirty years. This work is in conjunction with DkIT’s Summer Undergraduate Research Programme
Cao Minh Thao Nguyen & Fiachra O Cuinneagain
No.15 Femisoon
The project aims to raise awareness of the issue of discrimination based on gender, social, cultural, or religious affiliation.
"Take FemiSoon a day and you are back on your feet". Everything will change – your work, health, and your habits. Jokes and relationships too.
Julija Borisenko, Malgorzata Poludniak Salitra, Larissa Sheridan Ciobanu
No.14 Lost Swatch
A commemorative mural to remember the hundreds of young girls and women of the early 1820’s up until the industrial revolution in the 1840’s, when the only income to the household was made by making Lace Swatches for Kells Lace based at this location. Think of those queuing up to see if their craftwork met the grade or not when presented for an inspection! This Artform is now long forgotten as part of our creative identity.
Mark Smith
No.13 Kells TypeTrail Map
Detail from this year's informative map abstractly asking the question 'who are we or who are we trying to be in a digital world of social media apps?
Stephen Dullaghan
No.12 The Punt
This is a series of three posters that explore the story of who and why certain personalities were chosen to be represented on the currency after Irish Independence from the United Kingdom and before the introduction of the Euro Currency in Ireland's Republic.
Their story identifies the Irish people as a nation in its own right through culture - art, language etc., even geography detailing a nation's persona i.e. its personality with a unique identity.
Stephen Dullaghan
No.11 Safe
I've created three posters for “Identity” exploring the concentration of one's nationality based on location within an island. Derived from my experience growing up as a Catholic in Northern Ireland and finally putting down roots in the heart of Ireland (literally). Echoing the Brothers Grimm fairy tale 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears' can nationality be too much, not enough and then just right?
Deaglan Campbell
No.10 Lager & Loaves
This is a replica of the original label of J.C. Fitzsimons lager. Brewed in Kells in 1937. Printed using a Riso Stencil.
What is a Riso Stencil? The Riso internally creates a stencil that is laid onto a drum filled with ink which then spins at high speed, forcing the ink through the stencil onto the paper. This process creates a unique textured print that cannot be replicated. Unlike digital printing, there's no option to print in standard ink colors like CMYK.
Sarah Usher
No.9 Solid States
The boom times of the Celtic Tiger ended and we had to accept the demise of the Pub, an integral part of the Irish Identity.
Since then the memories of socialising, storytelling and live music have struggled to retain their former national ranking.
John Tarpey
No.8 Lifetime
After a life-changing trauma, John began an artist and began working with stained glass and other mediums. This piece is Inspired by Neolithic symbols and colour. It's composed of symbols distinguishing quality or characteristic meaning which relating to our various traits.
John McCarty
No.7 True Blue Cailin
A feeling of no true identity, of having nowhere to truly call home, having lived half my life under the southern stars & the other under the northern stars. Inspired by Australian folk songwriter/singer John Williams and the Irish language.
True blue - meaning 'Authentically Australian' and Cailin - girl in Irish.
Shamrock & Wattle
No.6 Adrift
Do life circumstances effect our identity? Do our emotional reactions to those circumstances affect how we see ourselves and how others see us?
Suella Holland
No.5 Be Yourself
Oscar Wilde’s saying, "Be Yourself, Everyone Else Is Taken" led me to consider the factors that create unique identity - such as, family, place, interests, and experiences. I believe that these contribute to an interior landscape, underpinning the external self.
This collage explores the interior landscape of the artist: There is darkness and light, flora, text, papers, paint, the sun-drenched fields which were the playground of my youth, family and a search for meaning. The 3-year-old Ina looks out to the viewer, seeming to pose a question - to which I want to give her the answer "Just be yourself".
Ina Olahan
No.4 Melody of Invisible Cities
The project is my interpretation of the book and based on my own life experience, imagination, and visualization. The project concept is to present Italo Calvino’s, ‘Invisible Cities’ as a melody, which means that the collection of musical tones is grouped together as a single entity. Similarly, to fifty-five invisible cities that are grouped together as a whole collection of stories in one book. As a representation of each city, I used the piano keyboard. Each city is represented by its own key to creating the whole melody of invisible cities.
Julija Borisenko
No.2 Chrysalis
Don't be bound by closed minded restrictions, you don't have to fit in a box. Stretch, flex, reach for happiness. Be yourself, everyone else is already taken.
Jacqui Devine
No.3 I Do Be In Stitches
At 23, Emma Colston (nee Hubbert), went to her father's lace manufacturing business in Nottingham, where she become a lacemaker. 5 years later, she returned to her hometown of Kells and established a lace-making business. In 1831, Emma sent a dress to Queen Adelaide to raise the profile of Kells Lace. The Queen sent back a reply, full of admiration for the quality of the lacework and insisted on paying £20 (the equivalent of £2200 today).
This art piece is created in her memory and to those who made lace- making history - There are thirty Kells colloquialisms contained in the dress….are you able to spot them all?!
Caitriona Moore
No.1 Homage
This year marks the 1500 anniversary of the birth of Saint Colmcille, a man we see as our patron Saint of all things lettering, our annual shrine highlight the cultural identities we now welcome as part of our community as we celebrate our heritage of lettering as a modern art form…
Mark Smith & Sean Crowe
A big thank you to this year's participants - Mark Smith, Sean Crowe, Jacqui Devine, Caitriona Moore, Julija Borisenko, Ina Olahan, Suella Holland, Shamrock and Wattle, John McCarty, John Tarpey, Sarah Usher, Deaglan Campbell, Stephen Dullaghan, Megan McDermott, Julija Borisenko, Malgorzata Poludniak Salitra, Larissa Sheridan Ciobanu, Cao Minh Thao Nguyen, Fiachra O’Cuinneagain, Sharon Maer, Ciara MacCormac, Year 8, students from St Richard Gwyn in Flint, North Wales and the 1st Year Students, AIT Athlone.
Supported by Meath County Council Arts and Heritage Offices, The Creative Arts Programme, The Arts Council & The Heritage Council.
