Ashley Holmes
b. 1967, USA/Ireland
These old colonial-style houses are from my home town in New England. They bear witness to the colonisation of what was a wild and forested landscape. While the homes stand defiant, centred in their vast expanses of mown lawn, the trees continue to push their roots into the foundations.
The decorative patterns I have chosen from curtains and wallpapers weave images of vines, flowers and birds into a design, somehow calming in its repetition. A decorative pattern can tame nature’s awesome and dangerous aspects by bringing order to chaos. I wonder if it is the beauty of the subject or, perhaps, the predictability of the pattern that brings comfort to the domestic environment. How far does the desire for inside order extend to the outside? Could one fool one’s self – by creating this false sense of security in the home – into believing the wider environment can be controlled?
(Text: a sense of place catalogue, 2007)
Back to Artists