I work across photography, moving image and objects, with a process-driven and collaborative approach. My work explores what constitutes an identity when we are separated from our mother tongue and mother land and forming connections with a new land and language. My recent work, Wayfinding, documents ephemeral interventions into Irish wetlands inspired by ancient Bronze-age stone carvings in the area.
In a personal quest for the meaning of origin, I immerse myself in old stories – real or fabricated, fragmented and re-moulded. My work serves to profess and reveal an unspoken understanding and intimacy within my family.
The materiality and process of making the work are crucial. Both the process and final work is immersive and gentle; moving images of flickering evening light which moves across the places we inhabit, found objects which are instilled with great meaning until the memory within them fades, and laboured writings (sound-pieces) which explore my uncomfortable relation to my mother tongue that I am slowly losing. Through instillations of these videos, found objects and writings I create an environment of nostalgic explorations of my family dynamics. It is a gentle desperation to collect and hold close all the fragments of our togetherness.
For questions, commissions and collaborations:
marguerite123thomas@gmail.com