Eamonn Doyle| ‘Untitled 4 (from the series i)’ | 2013 | Archival pigment print | 80 x 53.5cm

Since the Arts Council collection was established in the early 1960s there has been a huge growth in the number of artists using the camera to create photographs and make moving image artworks. At this time when we are all looking at an abundance of images online, we wanted to highlight some key works in the collection. There are over 100 lens-based works in the collection, and we’ve selected 14 works that are maybe not as familiar to our audiences. Works in the exhibition were created between 1987 and 2013.

Here, Eamonn Doyle, whose work is showcased under the ‘Four Decades of the Lens’ theme, tells us more about the featured artwork and what it means to have his artwork as part of the Arts Council collection. Explore this and more from the Arts Council collection at instagram.com/artscouncilireland/

There’s a lot of time in 1/750th of a second. There’s a lot of 1/750ths of a second in four decades. Photographs are less a split second of time, more an accumulation of it — all that came before, and all that is to follow. A photograph takes notice of shadows thrown at the intersection of time’s passing. Shadows convince us of our own narrative, that we even have one. They convince us that we see a man carrying an ironing board, recently bought in Guiney’s, crossing the road, lost in thought about just how much ironing there is to do — perhaps not so much, with such a small board, and perhaps made more pleasurable by the jolly candy stripes that adorn it, their colours vibrating against the fading blue evening light. But there are no absolutes, a photograph cuts these shadows free. What is it to pause, to stop half way across the street? The past pushes impatiently from behind and we are compelled to move on. The streets are marked with lines and arrows, and we can only move from one to the next to be sure we are part of it, if only for an easier life.

—Eamonn Doyle

Since 1962, the Arts Council has been buying art from working artists. The Collection that evolved tells the story of modern and contemporary Irish visual art in a unique and fascinating way. Today the Collection continues to grow and its more than 1,100 paintings, sculptures and other works are on display in public spaces all over Ireland for people to experience and enjoy first hand. You can find out more at: www.artscouncil.emuseum.com