O, to have a little house
Michelle Malone
The LAB Gallery
English
Softcover
46 pages
205 x 280 mm
2022
ISBN 9780992745080
This book was published on the occasion of Michelle Malone’s exhibition of the same name at the LAB Gallery in Dublin. It took place from September to November 2022. This publication includes writing, poetry and images of the exhibition.
Michelle’s work is rooted in a desire to materially explore working class histories through personal experience. This exhibition considers her childhood experience of home and most particularly her grandmother’s house and experience of moving from flat 1A in Fatima Mansions to new social housing in the suburbs. Through sculpture, installation, textile and film, the exhibition celebrates her grandmother’s pride in her home, recalling specific details and drawing on the material nature of memories. Michelle’s research considers where personal narratives fill gaps in collective histories through the material nature of objects and physical retelling through large scale sculpture and installation. She is interested in creating affected meaning through working-class materials and objects. In this large scale installation, we are invited to consider the nature of specific elements that were brand new in her grandmother’s home. The gallery is filled with the smell of freshly laid carpet. The pattern is synonymous with the ‘sitting room’ or good room in Irish homes in the 70s and 80s. Here it moves from the ground to become a floor to ceiling dramatic call to the street, where tenements once stood. Bold yellow and soft sage walls seem to question the colour choices of the carpet pattern as they are pitted side by side. Bare soil presents the viewer with a hint at the excitement and potential this garden provided the new homeowner, while the tapestry gives a reverence to the reproduced photograph of her grandmother’s favourite seat in the more mature garden with her beloved rosebush.
(source: http://www.dublincityartsoffice.ie/the-lab/exhibitions/o-to-have-a-little-house)
About the Artist
Michelle Malone lives and works in Dublin. She completed a BA in Fine Art at Technological University Dublin between 2016 and 2020, and received an MA in Creative Arts from TU Dublin in 2021. Her multi-disciplinary installations comprise sculpture, image-making, oral histories, audio and text based on her experience growing up in a variety of social housing systems in the inner-city.
michellemalone.net
(source: https://www.goldenfleeceaward.com/artists/michelle-malone)
About the Publisher
The LAB was established by Dublin City Council in 2005 as a municipal arts hub, housing gallery, rehearsal and incubation spaces for a range of art forms. The LAB Gallery supports emerging art practices and delivers a year round programme of free events for all ages. In addition to Dublin City Council, the LAB Gallery is supported by the Arts Council.
dublincityartsoffice.ie
(source: http://www.dublincityartsoffice.ie/the-lab/about-the-lab-gallery)
