Emma O'Brien
IRELAND
Emma O’Brien is a lens-based artist from Ireland. She received her BA in Photographic Media from Griffith College Dublin. Her current project ‘The Holding Place’ is concerned with themes of motherhood, family and home: while balancing unpaid emotional and domestic labour with full time paid work, O’Brien placed her photographic practice on hold -- motherhood demanded this sacrifice. As her child grew, working with a feminist concept of intersubjectivity -- how to care for another and oneself -- she began carving the time to explore her role as mother and artist. In The Holding Place, she finds the quiet moments, the silence and tenderness absent from the intense days of working and mothering. The project is made from aspects of motherhood: the small world that is inhabited, the recurring daily routines, the scant time available, and the intimacy of the mother-child relationship all shape the work.
Emma is part of FRESH EYES 2021
