About the artist

Born in Roscommon in 1973, Angie Duignan received her Diploma in fine art in ’94 and  BA in ’95 from LSAD and is currently studying for an MA at NCAD. Her work encompasses photography, video and audio installations. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, and is a freelance curator, project/ workshop facilitator. She has been on the panel of Artists for the Arts Council of Ireland funded Artist-in-Prison residency programme since 2000, has facilitated Artist-in-Schools programmes, and was selected for the Art@Work residency programme, joint arts initiative programme and TRADE International Residency Programme. She was the founding member of Art Lane artist studios and is the Mid - Western Regional Representative for Artist Studio Network Ireland (ASNI). She has been awarded funding from the Arts Council of Ireland and Culture Ireland. She is currently showing her photography and audio installation How does that story go again..? in The Imagination of Children exhibition in The V&A Museum of Childhood untill 5 Feb 2011.

Photographic work produced as a result of Angie’s engagement with two different youth organisations in Roscommon in 2010, will be touring Ireland in the coming months as part of the Young Makers tour, at West Cork Arts Centre, Kilkenny Arts Office, and NGG Gallery, Temple Bar, Dublin.

About the project

Alison Cronin: You were involved with two photography projects in Roscommon that produced work that became part of the Irish Exposition at Eksperimenta! and will be included in the Young Makers exhibition. Can you tell us a little bit about how those projects first came about?

Angie Duignan: I was approached in 2009 by Reidin Dunne coordinator of The RAD Youth Project, funded by Youth Work Ireland to facilitate two projects with the young people involved in the Project. The photography project was one project I designed for a group of 8 young people aged 15-17. After an initial dialogue with Reidin a photography project with the theme of Identity was discussed, as she noted:

"that the young people were interested in telling their story, as they had expressed a feeling of being robbed of their identity through involvement in "the system", having considerable experience of the social care and justice system and as a result felt that their identity and what makes them who they are has been subsumed by outside services that have more dominion over their trajectory than they do themselves".

The project focused on reclaiming Identity.It was felt that the theme was relevant to the participants, that they could connect with the theme and it would complement the individual’s development and understanding of themselves. I also discussed at the start of the project the idea of an exhibition of the finished work to give the participants something to aim for and to keep them focused.

The second photography project with Foroige Castlerea Neighbourhood Youth Project came about after I was approached by Roscommon County Arts Office to deliver a photography project. Under the Joint Arts Initiative - The Roscommon Youth Arts Programme funded by Roscommon County Council and Roscommon VEC. This project was based on the principles of autonomy, empowerment, participation and experiential learning, the core of which focused on the integrity of the young person, focusing on process, exploration and expression as well as artistic excellence. This project involved 10 participants aged 15-17 years.

AC: I’m interested in exploring the beginnings of projects, both in terms of the coming together of the essential practical elements of a project (participants, artist, funding etc.) and also in terms of how the artistic ideas emerge and grow into the artwork that is produced. Can you remember the first sessions of these projects, how you felt about meeting the participants for the first time, and what methods you used to begin working with them?

AD: I facilitated a mural project with some of the participants from The Rad in 2008 and had built up a relationship with some of the young people.  With the start of any project there is an element of apprehension and an awareness that the project idea might fall flat, and there is  the chance there will be no interest from the group in contributing or engaging with the project. I’ve found from my years of facilitating Artist-in-prison projects that there is an  initial   warm up period. The first contact with the group is very imortant where trust must be built very quickly. I approach each project from a facilitators perspective and explain that my role is to assist. I make it clear that I am not a teacher and it is not a classroom environment. Sometimes the participants have had very negative experiences within the school/teacher environment and  those negative emotions can spill over into a project.

With both groups I introduced myself as a visual artist who works with photography, video and audio installations and then proceeded to show and discuss examples of my work and where I get inspiration from. I find this method useful as an introduction to the group . The participants have the opportunity to ask me about my images and  I use it as an anchor  for discussing the project we will be working on. I approach the project in mind with the group and ask for feed back, what they would like to do etc. My approach is informal as I feel it works both for me and for the groups I deal with. I generally suggest that we go on at least one field trip to try out some of their ideas.This inspires  & opens  up the participants to new possibilities  makeing them aware of their surroundings  outside of their center environment.

AC: How involved were the two groups in the development of the themes and briefs that guided the projects?

AD: As described above the theme for the RAD project came about after meeting with the coordinator. From my experience I have found that the facilitator needs to have a strong idea for a project, particularly when working with a challenging group, one that is relevant for the group their interests and concerns. I have found that the initial contact with the group is a trust building exercise where my main concern is to connect with the individuals and the group as a whole. This can be difficult given limited time for the project, so it is essential to lead the group in a direction that they may be more willing and open to investing their time in the project.

The theme of ’Identity’ was used to create an opportunity to open up a discussion, to get the group thinking and talking .I wanted the group to consider how they see themselves and others and how they might like to represent themselves in a photography context. The brief was as simple as making a list of ideas after discussions on the notion of identity with the group.

The emphasis in the Foroige Castlerea Youth project was to introduce the group to the art of digital photography and how it may be used to express an idea, whether it be documentary in style or representational. The theme for this project came about after discussions with the group about positive mental health week, which coincided with the start of the project.It was decided among the group that they would like to make work around the area of ’What makes me happy". An exhibition was planned  to run in conjunction with positive mental health week 21 Oct 2010 in The Foroige Castlerea Neighbourhood Youth Project. 

AC: Can you comment on the differences in these projects and how different starting points affected the final outcomes?

AD: The RAD project was a more challenging group to work with, with different needs and levels of motivation and engagement from the participants. The contact time with the group was short, so the sessions were split up to work with two participants at a time in order to keep motivation high among the participants.

The final outcome was the same there was a finished body of work exhibited by the group at the end of both projects. The Foroige project has a different background to the RAD project.  The distinct dynamics dictated how the projects developed and progressed  .I worked with the Foroige group as a whole and we went on site visits together. We used my professional camera and the participants took their shots with assistance from me on composition. They engaged with each other to pose for shots and generally had higher levels of confidence and self-motivation that changed the dynamic of the running of the project. I don’t feel the differences in the way these projects started affected the outcomes of the photography projects, as it was up to the participants to engage and create the work which they did and both groups produced sophisticated work of a very high standard and quality. 

AC: You have worked in a number of different contexts with children and young people, including primary schools, secondary schools, youth groups, playschools and juvenile detention centres. How much does your approach to beginning a project change depending on the context and age of the participants?

AD: Every project and every group is a new beginning, what might work in one context may not in another, even if there are similarities with age and context. Group dynamics, age and time all come into play.

There are many factors to consider: What group will I be working with (mainstream or fringe groups) age group /range of ages, size of group, what environment will I be working in etc.  For example, there are a lot more restrictions when working in a prison environment due to mobility/security issues also the use of photography is not permitted in prison projects I have facilitated and so I will adapt projects to fit the environment. I will take into consideration how those restrictions/limitations might impose when designing and delivering a project in that environment.

Time is a huge factor to consider when designing and delivering a project, total time allocated to working with the group and the timescale/contact period. Different groups and projects run at different paces, sometimes it is difficult to judge how much can be achieved in a particular time period, depending on the size, age, abilities and motivation/engagement of the participants in the project.

When designing a photography project I have to take into consideration will the project run during day light hours or evenings and what facilities, equipment/materials the centre has at their disposal etc.  I have to be realistic with regards designing all aspects of a project and must also take allocated budget into consideration.  Projects are divided into two groups, those that have a budget for materials and those where the production costs have to be subtracted from the overall budget.  I will have a meeting or correspondence with the coordinator beforehand to ask all the above questions before undertaking a specific project and will cater for all individual circumstances. 

AC: In my recent article for this website exploring starting points, I spoke about the feeling of having butterflies in the stomach at the beginning of each project, and how I will have various ideas in my head but never really know until I’m in the room with the group quite how I will begin, and Orla Kelly in conversation with Mark O’Brien on this website spoke about the need to "try for something that is undescribable at the point where you start from". Any thoughts on your own way of approaching this ’not knowing’?

AD: There is always a sense of apprehension/awareness on starting a project with a new group especially one I haven’t worked with before. I start with the most ambitious ideas when brain storming and pare down to more realistic working ideas when writing my proposal. I instinctively try to place myself in the role of the participant and consider what ’I’ might like to work with, what my abilities are and what I might like to say. 

On ’not knowing’- An idea or proposal is only an idea until it is put out there. Only then can one judge whether there’s any chance of those ideas working. I find it’s always better to be open oneself to ideas that may just pop up and be flexible in the early stages of starting a project. Some projects/ groups demand more structure and are more direction lead, so again one has to be open to that way of working. Sometimes the ideas with most potential are the ones that give the participants ownership over what is possible under the framework of an initial suggestion. I always make a one to one connection with  each participant,  Some may struggle with open-ended suggestions and direction and there is the chance that fear of failure can creep in and spread like a virus around the collective group ,stifling any chance of engagement in the project. I have gained confidence over the years with working with various different groups and agesand have a good idea of what will and will not work in certain contexts   I  am however very aware of the differences and keep on my toes.

I want to be excited myself when starting a project,   I am facinated by the journey and  am always amazed at how we got to where we are at the end of a project Starting a project is like getting ready to jump and not being sure where you’re going to land, it’s a matter of "prepare yourself, trust yourself and let go!" 

AC: Your own artwork appears to often deal with children and childhood themes, as well as engaging with children and young people through various projects and workshops throughout your career, how do these two elements complement, influence, sit aside one another?

AD: I feel they sit aside one another and I try to keep them quite separate but I do find they sometimes influence each other; one occasionally can spark ideas from the other.

For example in the Art@Work residency I did in Molly’s bakery in 2006, I worked with my own adaptation of The Little Red Riding Hood theme and printed a series of 12 images onto sheets of icing. This part of the installation dealt with parent’s fears for their children in our modern society while also making the observation that children themselves are aware and capable. When I was asked later to facilitate a project with a primary school for The Lollypops festival, coordinated by Roscommon Arts Centre ,the remit I was given was that it had to use sweets as its theme. I designed a project that centred around fairy tales/story telling and making edible images and used again sugar paste sheets instead of paper. The children had the opportunity to choose, rewrite, adapt one of their favourite tales and then make a 2D edible drawing using sweets, edible ink etc. which they got to bring home and eat.

In my own work I use the child as a metaphor, a vehicle, and so I would disagree that my work deals with children and childhood as such. I use family members as models in my work as they are willing and at hand. I also feel the audience engages with the child figure and I can draw the viewer in. I liken my work to that of The Simpsons cartoon in that it is accessible on many levels and one can get what one chooses from the work. The many layers to the work are there for the viewer to explore depending on their level of interest and curiosity.