The intention with each stone was to create an encounter — something that reflects the complexities of how we interact with the land. Concrete demonstrates this tension: a manmade material, dating back to ancient Rome, that has shaped and interfered with the landscape across time.
It’s a complicated and ubiquitous substance. Made from three basic ingredients — like bread — it begins to cure and solidify the moment they’re combined. If left unreinforced, it slowly breaks down. I’m drawn to this process, to the aesthetics of ruination — and to the human impulse to carve names into surfaces, scarring the land in an attempt to affirm our existence.
Concrete holds a kind of materiality that sits at the opposite end of the spectrum to photography. The image carries its own logic — one tied to consumption. Concrete positions the body; it tells you who owns the land. The photographic image positions your perception; it shapes how you see the land, and what to desire within that view.
First image: Breastagh Ogham Stone
— 54°14'25"N, 9°15'19"W
Mary Louise Grossman, John N. Hamlet, 1988 — Page N° 196
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Challenging institutional representations of the living environment, her work creates encounters that aim to alter viewers’ preconceptions, revealing the complex boundaries that shape human- animal-land relations.
Sint Lucas School Of Arts Antwerp
BA Photography
School Of Creative Arts, TUD Dublin
BA Photography (Erasmus)
Paris 8 University
Bachelor Of World Religions & Theology
Trinity College Dublin
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Through photography and sculptural installation, Thérèse Anna Rafter’s practice examines the mediation of nature within western culture.
Challenging institutional representations of the living environment, her work creates encounters that aim to alter viewers’ preconceptions, revealing the complex boundaries that shape human-animal-land relations.
Work
Diary