Yvonne O’Sullivan
b. 1972, Ireland
This piece is a work-in-progress. It is part of a documentary study of religious life in Ireland today, focusing on the private spaces of nuns’ bedrooms. By exploring their worlds, I hope to uncover the personal elements of their normally public presentation. I want to go beyond the unquestioned perceptions and stereotypical views we have of them as an amorphous group, a group where, in the past, individual identity was not foregrounded.
Over the course of the project I developed a level of trust with the nuns that I had not expected, and they began to reveal themselves to me at a more private level. By photographing their bedrooms I began to access there private worlds. The room is a symbol of individuality and privacy of both mind and body. Their personal objects acted as symbols and metaphors, revealing their individuality, humanity and spirituality.
(Text: heroes + holies catalogue, 2002)
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