A Dublin creative and DJ for over 3 decades, Dubliner Aidan Kelly exhibits his first solo photographic show in the beautiful gallery space in Rathfarnham Castle this summer. A true Dub, Kelly poses questions about the city with every image but his love for his hometown radiates within, offering the viewer a personal, yet universal glimpse into what makes our metropolis tick.
The setting for your exhibition is fascinating. A stunning 17th-century architectural classic hosting a treatise on a modern city that could be dying. Did this appeal to you as an artist?
Starting on the North-side via the energy of the city centre, it wasn’t lost on me, knowing the feeling and history of a space like Rathfarnham Castle, a place of calm grandness, that the idea of the Le Bret and Loftus families having connections there from the 16th Century was inspiring.
A complete world away from my family history, let’s say, working-class heroes that I hope to represent with work that they’d be proud of.
They came from Cabra West, Ballyfermot, and Finglas. Blue jeans and dirt under the fingernails.
Then you stand inside those castle surroundings, it’s stunning. I thought of my Mam buying paper and pens, my father and my uncles who gave me inspiration and cameras.
Coming from that alternative hard-working background, they would have loved to see how their son and nephew had made it to such a glorious place, never say it to me directly, of course, but give me that look. And just for taking photographs! Which I feel is in stark contrast, in both its ideal and feeling, but how I got in through the front door, I’ll never know.
You obviously love Dublin. What do you think are its fundamental characteristics?
Without a doubt, I would have thought for a very long time that I am where I come from! If I leave Dublin to see bits of the world outside, and people hear the sound of me rambling on, I get questions about where I call home. I’d get emotional for a few reasons. I sit up and remember I stand for this place in my own way. A Photographer, as a DJ, as an artist.
We’re a vibrant, changing city in many ways. I’m too nostalgic maybe, but I hear those sound systems of all those clubs I loved gone silent, the sound of us dancing and singing to say we are here and not going anywhere. I can’t help but still be that DJ looking for an illegal feeling. I understand fully that cities have to change. It’s boring now, but we built over those places and didn’t replace them with something better.
It feels to me and no secret that the powers that be think we behave differently than they would like, maybe we don’t need a city with more community spaces, clubs, anything else but endless wine and porter.
Those planners possibly think we need apartments that cost way more than we are earning, a sense of panic to keep us on edge, last buses at 11.30 and the work I’m showing is a reaction to these ideas, I feel let down by how Dublin could do with a bit of extra love, not more souvenir shops.
You can’t build over the relentless. Dublin has a multi coloured spirit that I felt was a lady-like idea, Anna Livia, Molly, she’s always singing but sometimes slightly out of tune, A spare pair of flats in her bag full of hammers, I love her for this, but she still drives me mad sometimes.
The pandemic gave you an unparalleled artistic opportunity to capture Dublin. What were your emotions during this time?
I couldn’t believe how quiet it was around the city. In the book version of No Ordinary Love, the centre pages printed on a different paper will be a set of photos I took in the city centre at that time. There’s an eeriness to these, unlike the other work. It’s more special as if these places were full of memories, Ghostly.
Thinking back, it was an extraordinary time where I imagined herself asleep all day, then staring out the window of this cramped apartment. Half-empty bottles of wine. I was lucky to be living in Dublin 8, cycling and walking around, everywhere that looked like a movie set. Particularly around twilight, all I could hear were the seagulls crying.
I couldn’t shake the sound of this woman I was in love with, singing to herself like some audio in a low-budget short movie. In between this obsession, I made radio shows for RTE, and there was endless tea; I just went walking and cycling with a camera. For some, it was a tough time, but for me, I felt we needed to take a look at everything. And for me, looking means remembering with a camera.
You said way back that (Dublin) town was dead. How is it doing now?
Coming from the service industry you’d possibly be working on a Thursday the unofficial start to the weekend, sometimes the places I worked in were quieter than others and it was a tongue in cheek statement amongst your work mates that it wasn’t busy, maybe “Town is Dead”. This was the first of the handwritten works back in 98 and from there the works just came through like text messages. I didn’t mean it literally, but I felt things change. I was getting older, and the city’s atmosphere shifted a little. She would read the messages and not get back to me.
We’re a port on the coast, and that naturally lends itself to change, weather, different people, different energies, Priorities, and I think with referendums, Politics and the time off we have had to go through, it’s made us look at ourselves, maybe in challenging ways. I think we’re in a very cathartic time, and I think this is amazing for artists in general. Particularly photographers, I feel.
What can we, as Dubliners, do to ensure its survival?
Aren’t we resourceful? We’re storytellers. Can we possibly take what’s happening outside of ourselves and turn it into something more creative, relatable and memorable? music and song, images that tell those hard stories. I believe that because we have many different people on our island that we are better for the opportunities they bring. All it takes is a chat, More support for the Arts, a little appreciation of the people who helped get you where you are, and a bit more sharing, buy someone a coffee.
No Ordinary Love came from the idea that Dublin, in all her tipsy beauty, has been dazzled by the grass is greener idea, not knowing in her heart of hearts that everything she needs is right here.
I just want Dublin to be the best city in the world. That’s all of us pushing and pulling for each other instead of the other anxious idea. We have to get there eventually. Don’t leave it to the city planners.
No Ordinary Love – A Dublin Photo Exhibit by Aidan Kelly runs until August 31st at Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin 14.
Admission is free.
Check heritageireland.ie for opening hours.
