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Emerging Artist AwardIris was the recipient of the 2012 Inaugural Award, a partnership initiative between Studio Nine Gallery , Wexford County Council and Arts Council. For this award, Iris continued her research into global maritime trade. With an interest in cargo ships, consumption and our throwaway society, this exhibition encompassed all. With an interest in mass culture and its effects on our society, Iris continued her cultural studies on the writings of Dominic Strinati. Through photography and film Iris explored these areas of interest, and as in previous work reveals the process of making to the viewer. The process is a very important part of Iris’ work rather than the final outcome, being on location informs the work.
The Poolbeg and Dublin Port are sites from the artist’s childhood which she recently revisited, to make the work. The film ‘Global Factory’ (2013) was created over a period of three months whilst on residency at Studio Nine. The port and its workers in a restricted area from the public: being out of sight, out of mind, intrigued Iris. Her desire to make the invisible visible entailed many visits to the locations. The port runs twenty four hours a day loading and unloading the goods for our large multinational stores. Whilst mass culture can be seen as a revolutionary force, where barriers are broken down, it mixes and jostles everything it can also erode the societies and values which previously held people together. Sea trade is a relic of an older out of date economy, a world of rust and creaking cables and the slow movement of heavy goods. We now live in a world of cyberspace scarcely given a thought of the sea as a space for transport any more. In the book ‘Is this yours?’ (2013) this work was a long term project where Iris gathered, photographed many objects washed up on the shorelines of the beaches along the South East. This assemblage of accumulated objects, reflect our throwaway society, offering a picture of how we live and document our lives. In July 2015 Iris was delighted for an excerpt from her painting 'Jigsaw' to be featured in Kevin Connollys beautiful poetry book Pools of Light published by Hook Publishing, Duncannon, Wexford. http://kevin-connelly.com/2011/12/06/the-emperor-has-no-clothes/ 
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