A portal into ancestral Ireland

Ancestry and artefacts have always intrigued Cavan native Laura Smith.

Combining her love of contemporary art, photography and videography, Laura has commenced a body of documentary artwork named ‘We Make This House A Portal Between Worlds.’

The Celt caught up with Laura just ahead of the exhibition’s launch in Cavan County Museum last Wednesday evening.

The exhibition in Ballyjamesduff marks the beginning of a larger scale project. The part time TUD lecturer explained the work explores “different past worlds and different people’s worlds” using her own family’s ancestral home as a “portal into that time”.

“No one lives in it anymore, it stays in the past,” Laura said of the home in an undisclosed location in County Cavan. “It’s like a museum, it is a vessel that contains years of family memories.”

Laura appreciates that the venue of Cavan’s museum, a home to many artefacts which she described as a “catalyst place” for memories and thoughts resonates with the themes explored in her work.

Upon entering the room where the exhibition is housed, Laura’s photos pull back the veil of times past.

“We understand our history not just through written documents but also, and particularly in Ireland, through oral traditions,” she said.

Although artefacts and elements of the work are related to Laura’s family story, she is eager for viewers to take their own meaning.

The Swellan woman tells her account of the black and white photographs and what they mean to her, remembering “the people who aren’t there anymore.”

She approaches one image of her ancestors on board a ship to Manhattan which she has manipulated to create the illusion of several families.

“I manipulated it by layering multiple times,” she explained of the work, which she wants to show “the ripples that are felt” due to a through the passage of time; emigration in this visual.

“A lot of these people are people I had never met but knew so much about,” she said.

As she crosses the room, Laura explains there is no specific way to view the work; spectators can take from it what they please. She explained a visual known as ‘They have Idealistic notions of being’ which is an image she took of Cavehill in Belfast.

“I’m kind of obsessed with caves,” the Cavan woman admitted, explaining that they link into the idea of a portal into a different world. Another photograph portrayed the view from the same cave. Laura explained the work was completed at a time of recession in 2013, when money governed rather than democracy.

“We live in a democratic society yet in times of crisis, democracy becomes secondary,” she asserted, describing socio-political tensions in history as the “crux” of her work.

Laura recalled the day she went to Belfast to photograph the work when there were riots taking place in the streets below.

“Where I was it was so peaceful,” she said, explaining that growing up in a border county has influenced this work deeply.

“Having grown up here I think most people are intrigued as to why there is this line that was drawn, and who makes those decisions? And the implications from that.”

She walks to the black marble fireplace in the museum and places three film images of a lake where her grandfather grew up, taking care not to leave fingerprints on their glass frame. She has left them in their negative form.

“It takes away who they are in one sense but there’s still this possibility to flip it, to see them in actuality,” she said of her decision to leave them in film.

“I just really like the idea of allowing the light to pass through it,” she said. “I wanted to keep them see through.”

Laura hopes to continue the project and incorporate her love of videography.

“It has taken me to this point,” Laura said, gesturing to the images around the room.

“I nearly always start thinking in video,” Laura explained.

The entire project is still in the research stages which she described as “full of potential” for where it will go.

The artist encouraged people to “come up with their own thoughts” on the work which she enjoys hearing about.

“I always think it is really interesting to get those viewpoints,” she said.

“I just like the stillness of the house as well as a site that’s nearly like a little museum.”

The exhibition will be in Cavan County Museum until July 22 at 5pm.