Aoife Herrity

Aoife Herrity is an Irish photographic artist, educator and writer based in Dublin, Ireland. She holds an MFA in Photography from the Belfast School of Art at Ulster University. Her ongoing graduate series Sleeping Dogs Lie was selected as a PhotoIreland TLP Editions publication which will be published in 2020. In 2017, Herrity’s portrait series DYT at 40 was projected in Meeting House Square in Dublin’s Temple Bar. Her work has been shown at a number of exhibitions nationally and is held in private collections in Ireland, Canada and the USA.

Current Work

Rumours, secrets and absent memories can affect the stories we tell about ourselves and where we come from. Collective suppression and denial can tap into our deeper instincts tugging at our intuition and implicit memory, leaving us to decipher and reinterpret based on our knowledge at a given time. These uncovered histories can cause agitation and conflict within ourselves and our families; their very presence casting long shadows that follow us into adulthood.

Sleeping Dogs Lie explores the darker sides of memory, the suppressed narratives and the vacuum of knowledge surrounding insidious experiences and their aftermath. Acknowledging the body’s various threat responses and subsequent protective measures invites a greater understanding of complex traumatic encounters. This body of work aims to address the complexities involved in difficult and sensitive histories.