Jill Quigley
Cottages of Quigley’s Point
Cottages of Quigley’s Point makes use of photographed interventions in abandoned houses to question romantic readings of the rural Irish cottage. An exploration of the numerous ruined dwellings near Jill’s childhood home in Donegal, Ireland, the project is a means of investigating and re-imagining local heritage. Rather than viewing these houses as artefacts with nostalgic associations, their redundant nature allows the freedom for active engagement and the creation of a personal record of explorations made in Quigley’s locality. The addition of bright colours and movement of these empty interiors is intended to situate the subject matter in the present as encountered and to emphasise her presence in that time and place. As such, the process of intervention subverts a wistful reading of a disappearing way of life, and provides the opportunity to take a fresh and playful approach to familiar subject matter.
