PhotoIreland opens for the 5th time the New Irish Works call to all photographers and artists critically engaged in image making, based in Ireland and those Irish artists developing their practice abroad, regardless of age and career stage.
New Irish Works is a unique artist support programme run since 2013 by PhotoIreland in three-year cycles, generating a growing set of professional development opportunities for participant lens-based practitioners.
Throughout the last decade, New Irish Works artists have been presented and showcased nationally across Dublin, Cork, and Limerick, and internationally from Paris, Amsterdam to Madrid, Ukraine, and beyond. The programme published and distributed a book featuring 25 artists in 2013, a collection of 20 solo publications in 2016, and a set of group and solo exhibitions between 2019-2024 at the Museum of Contemporary Photography of Ireland during PhotoIreland Festival and at The Library Project.
The publications proved to be popular and have sold worldwide; they are now part of many private and public collections, including those of key cultural organisations such as the Hasselblad Foundation Library, the Martin Parr Foundation, and the Centre Culturel Irlandais.
In addition, the New Irish Works programme contributes to international pools of artists such as the Creative Europe FUTURES Photography Platform — of which PhotoIreland is the only Irish member — providing further opportunities to Irish and Ireland-based artists in the international context.
The year 2025 represents a substantial milestone for PhotoIreland’s development providing added opportunities and strengthening the ambition of the New Irish Works programme in the future.
For a balanced and transparent outcome, a jury is set in place to review the submissions and select a number of projects. The jury is strategically composed of national and international experts from a diversity of Art fields and with a variety of specialisations.
![Today, I’ll discuss how I created the mechanism for exhibition display purposes. After completing the art books, I began questioning how to present the same mechanism effectively in an exhibition setting. Through experimentation, I realised that I could scale up the mechanism after testing smaller sizes. By flipping the orientation of my subjects and enlarging the images to the largest possible size—A3, thanks to inspirational artwork and double-sided printing—I achieved a more impactful display.
A significant challenge was ensuring the shapes would return to their original position after being pulled. To solve this, I devised a system using fishing weights concealed beneath the plinth. This innovation allowed the audience to interact with the mechanism by pulling the shapes, which the weights would then reset into place.
While constructing the plinth, I incorporated three montages that explored and critiqued misogynistic ideas. These montages addressed themes such as the male gaze, the objectification of women’s bodies, and male-dominated depictions of war and contemporary art, including drawings of women in the nude. Together, these elements created a cohesive and thought-provoking display for the exhibition.
That’s a wrap from me and this takeover I really hope you enjoyed it feel free to reach out to me @ciara_r_photography
[This post is part of a series of RADAR Artist takeovers. The current takeover is by artist Ciara Richardson]](https://photoireland.org/apps/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)
