Sheaneen Healy Byrne
I am a visual artist who works primarily with documentary and conceptual narrative photography. I am currently interested in expanding into documentary video work. I am inspired by historical traditions and in recent work I have combined my own photographs with archival and found images to reveal 'hidden histories.' For example, in my project To Inherit a Trade I documented my family farm. Its history spans more than 150 years. My major influences are Irish culture and literature.
To Inherit a Trade
To Inherit a Trade is a documentary combining my photographs, found images, and a video documentary including an interview about my family farm where I was raised. This work represents a very small element of a much larger history of the generations who have worked the land and passed it down through each generation for more than 150 years. The farm holds true to the traditions and rituals passed down with it and is part of a dying tradition in rural Ireland and agriculture which is threatened by industrial farming methods.
Everlasting Life
Single use plastic is used to package the majority of our food and it is used for a few days and then disposed of. Without plastic food biodegrades and restores nutrients back to the earth but the plastic packaging lasts for more than 500 years. Why does fresh produce need to be packaged at all? In 500 years, 20 generations from now, it will be the year 2521, the 26th century, we will all be long dead but our waste plastic will still exist. Scientists argue that we have 7 years to save our planet, 7 years for a global effort in adopting sustainable habits and alternatives. 7 years to reduce 150 million tons of single use plastic waste per year down to zero.