Aine Scannell

This work is concerned with children born into homes or situations where there are impossible conditions imposed on them. Their images are revealed to us through windows, there are no doors in or out of these contexts in which they find themselves. In the course of researching the images selected to feature within the work, the key search criteria used were children, trauma, war and abuse. I also used the term's 'homeless and displaced' children. The material encountered was appalling and saddening and I was apprehensive as to some of the images used in this installation piece. I used images from Afghanistan the UK, China, and a small number from historical contexts. These included child survivors from the Auschwitz concentration camp, a place I visited in 1990 on a journey to Poland. It has had a profound affect on me and has never left my consciousness.

At the same time I do want the viewer to the exhibition to feel a connection with the plight of the children. To an extent to many of us, as the children we were. We are all part of humanity.

In the centre of the installation piece, hung at eye level is a life size infant doll. A mask of tissue paper is layered onto the face alluding, to the point that we often don't see this child that is in pain or we are afraid to 'interfere' within its social/familial situation. Society masks its own transgressions. Another metaphor I wanted to suggest by the use of a mask was as armor, i.e. the survival strategy tendency adopted by the child to deny the malign nature within those people, who are abusive of their power and trust in their interactions with the child. It is too fatalistic to consider, that those who are ones carers, are 'bad' - so very often the child concludes that he or she is at fault. The damage is done twice over with lifelong reverberations.

White bird feathers swathe the infant doll referring to the preciousness and fragility of a young formless life. On the surfaces of these metallic forms (which are actually made of paper) are scribed hand-written texts. These fictionally sympathetic narratives are in the form of mythical tales told by the children in relation to their individual situations. They are always trying to remain optimistic and to find means of 'magic' to make every thing all right. It is their capacity for love and their imaginations that keep them going.

The entire piece was made very much with children in mind i.e. as content and audience. I therefore needed to consider that the various elements would need to be 'viewable' from their spatial perspective. Hence the staggering of the nine glass shelves either side of the central doll figure. This is at adult eye level. The lowest house form is such that a toddler in a pram can see it. I wanted for the viewer generally to see this image underneath the house form. That is the shape of the space occupied by a child. It can be interpreted in various ways, perhaps to signify death, hiding, or the idea of an anima/soul. It's possible too for the child to get close enough to read some of the stories of the children 'trapped' in the 'houses', depending on their literacy levels. The word 'adespos' is something I have used in previous artworks. It's taken from Medieval Latin and means 'anonymous'.

This installation, though a container of much young human pain and suffering is a homage to their courage. The lights in each unit are a symbol of their life force and importance……….