SOVEREIGNTY
A photo essay about the creation of the Sovereignty project by conceptual artist Áine O’ Brien and photographer Myriam Riand.
“The time has come for women to reclaim our sexuality, spirituality and sovereignty. Herstory is every woman’s story and the Sovereignty project was created for all of you. It was an honour to commission and curate Sovereignty by photographer Myriam Riand and conceptual artist Áine O’ Brien. I was deeply moved by the quality of their research, artistic process and creative concepts. In this photo essay the artists share their profoundly personal experience of creating this project and the healing power of art to soothe, transform and empower. Together we embarked on a spiritual journey through centuries of women’s suppression to reawaken and reclaim powerful feminine archetypes from history and mythology. Women are rising. We are finding our authentic, compassionate power and our true voice. We invite the masculine to join us and together we can turn the war of the sexes into a dance to equality.”
- Melanie Lynch, Founder & CEO of Herstory
Where it all started
The aim of this project is to illuminate the spark in Irish women's hearts. Showing Ireland the diversity and strength of its women. A walk through the portal to a world where the feminine is adored, nurtured and protected.
A transformation. To let go of the past, rebirth the now and live in their new found sovereign power.
In 2018 , we worked on a project together whereby we set out to recreate the Síle na Gig. This picture was the first meeting of the artists, Myriam and Áine. It was taken in Kilfenora’s Cathedral where Áine’s ancestors are buried. It was a strange sensation to enter into this sacred space and create a different energy. It was both new and empowering. It was bold and renewing. We knew that conceptual photography was our shared passion and that it would be an honour to create photos for this campaign.
In October 2019 we created a new image of Mother Mary in response to the Mother and Baby Homes scandal. It was so moving to be able to touch on a subject of such pain and awaken the power of healing through art. This was the moment when we realised we no longer have to sit in anger at the injustices of our lives - our individual and collective trauma - but we could instead reflect light upon it. We have the ability as beautiful co-creators to reclaim our sovereignty and our future.
Yours,
Áine and Myriam
Sovereignty was featured in the 2021 Herstory Light Show where the photographs illuminated Belvedere House & Gardens, Athlone Castle, Galway City Museum and Sean Ross Abbey.
1. BREASTFEEDING MADONNA
In recent weeks, our dark history of institutionalising mothers and babies resurfaced. Feeling helpless, enraged and rebellious we felt that it was now time to reclaim our mother and child image. Our deity.
RECLAIMING OUR POWER
Today is our day. We own our bodies and we bear its fruit. We rise with the depths of our desire to inspire truth. We are the mother. Giving birth to children and ideas alike. Delicious and immaculate. Every woman can channel the mother.
It is in our power to remove the shades of shame, shine our light and don our halos. We can rekindle our love and reimagine ourselves as free fertile spirits.
ANCIENT WISDOM
When the women of Ireland reignite their ancient innate power and wisdom and step into their new domain as the Queens that they are. They will be reminded of their worth. They will be empowered to leave abusive situations and take action that will create a better world for themselves and their children. By remembering their ancient voice, they will have the power to move, shift and transform.
Own their own.
Speak their truth.
PROCESS
The campaign to unseal the documents of the Mother and Baby Homes really struck a chord in me. I felt passionate for truth, justice and compassion. I wanted to do something. I don't know why, but I had a strong feeling that an image could tell a thousand words and I set out to imagine what it would say. I knew there was grief, I knew there was anger, but I wanted the next phase...the healing. How could we find the light in a dark place? Where was the affirmation?
I began to look at the mother and child image. I have always loved it. I then thought, who is she and can she be me, an everyday woman. She is a mother, and a deity and yet, though worshiped by the church was also persecuted in real life. I then found out that there once existed, paintings of nursing mothers of Christ in the history of Catholicism! As you can imagine, once the 16th century arrived and the witch hunts began; the nursing Madonna iconography disappeared. Once the church began to persecute women, declaring them witches, the natural Mother became a thing of the past. Upon reading this, I knew what needed to be done. I rang Myriam Riand. A talented photographic artist and asked her if she felt as passionately as I did about what has been done for the Women of Ireland. Thankfully she said yes. We went on to create a breastfeeding Madonna in a ruined church on the west coast of Co.Clare. It was especially important for us that we chose an ancient church as it was a symbol of time. Nothing lasts forever yet everything is sacred.
2. LETTING GO
As part of the research for this project we travelled to Tuam to visit the Mother & Baby Home.
We both felt privileged to have an opportunity to explore our feeling and the feelings of the nation through the medium of art. We wanted to know how the space felt. We wanted to honour the victims and the survivors of this institutionalised abuse. The irony of the worship of the mother and baby and the simultaneous abuse of actual mother and babies was difficult to understand. We arrived, and then we sat in silence. Separately, with notebooks in hand; we were still. Twenty minutes past then we reconnected and discussed what came up for us. One emotions hit us both.
The first words Áine wrote down were from the voice of the children : Play with me, hug me, love me, hear me, see me.
With this deep connection to the Tuam Mother and Baby Home story, we especially wanted to help heal this wound in the minds and hearts of Irish women. We thought the wishing tree would be a striking and familiar way to represent the forgotten babies in our final image.
We decided that for us, the souls who lay there were free, and we were left behind who hold the pain and shame of what happened. We then realised that it was time to transmute the hurt and move into the future with ease and love.
Freedom from the trauma is what we aspire to inspire.
Model - Trish Reilly
Áine came across Trish Reilly’s name three times during this project. She was trying to find a representative for this concept and asked many people for someone who they may think would work. They all suggested Trish. She finally got her on the phone one day and they spoke for an hour about the project and her life. Her story was so connected to our minds and hearts and what we wanted to transform through our work. The idea of this piece was of deep pain and trauma being transformed, being felt and embodied but for us not to be consumed by it. We wanted to honour the pain and try to find a new acceptance. The tree that is inflamed but not engulfed.
It then transpired that we had four mutual friends, one of which lived in Kilfenora. Her name is Katie Theasby. Katie and Trish are both powerful songwriters. On the day of the shoot, Trish asked if Katie could come with us. It felt so right to have her there with us and their connection was strong. This helped us to feel another element we had not thought about before. Connection. Especially when it comes to dealing with something much larger than ourselves. We need each other for support. Not unlike when someone is channeling a song and their hand would be held in support.
Trish was taken from her mother, along with four of her siblings and sent to an industrial school. This unfortunately was not a unique story among the Travelling community. The family is the centre of everything and to split up a Traveller family it is deeply traumatic for the culture. Because her mother was illiterate, she was unable to swim through the mounds of paperwork to get her children back.
Trish is an activist and strives to heal herself and her community through her voice and song.
From Trish Reilly: Youtube video
A little about the challenges I faced in that system as a Traveller... I went back to work with Travellers in Institutional care which helped me again to gain strength from the experience and to give hope and strength to other young children.
I am currently a Traveller rights activists hoping to see better human rights for Travellers as one of Ireland’s oldest people that have been here for centuries and we hope to have our ethnicity further celebrated by campaigning for indigenous ethnic status. Much of the work is done by women who have always been at the helm. In our community, women are viewed as the backbone of family life.
Process
The task at hand is to own this moment. The powerful woman Traveller. She represents the strength, knowledge and wisdom of holding memory and tradition. She will not be consumed by grief. She is the ancient warrior personified. Present. She holds the mother space for all who have not given birth, or lost their children and carry that energy with them. The women who are mothers to us all. We want to reimagine the future to include every version of ourselves. We know the pain of the past but we will not be beaten by it. We will rise from it.
We used two locations for this shoot. One was the wishing tree and two others on the beach.
Áine created the wishing tree to look like it was on fire. Cutting yellow, red and orange strips of material and then attaching them to a tree beside my house. She put intention in every strip. Thinking of the sorrow and pain and loss that has ever been felt and asking for it to be released. It was a very emotional moment. The wind blew through the tree and the wishes were in flight. On the day that Trish arrived by the tree and we began to shoot, it really was profound. She sang the Traveller lullaby and I felt the calming come over the space.
The second location by the sea was with her friend Katie. Both women sang a song that was written by Trish’s relative and it was such a powerful moment. The two women were dressed in black with clothes inspired by keeners. Grief was dying. Pain was dead. We were all saying goodbye to carrying anything that does not serve us anymore.
3. ADORATION OF THE MOTHER
To be seen, is to be heard, is to be healed.
To be a Queen, you must be seen and crowned. It is so important that the women of this world are adored and protected whilst being forgiven and accepted.
Our lives and worlds are imperfect and likewise the path of Irish women through history is imperfect. Difficult decisions were made by families regarding mixed race children. Many of whom were unable to live with their families and sent to institutions. The mothers made to feel shame. We see this image as the forgiveness piece. The boy, Noah represents both the past and the future. He forgives the intolerance and crowns the future acceptance. The mother herself is asking for help to be able to accept this love. To be able to receive the unconditional love. The setting is broken and vandalised. The home is broken, but all is not lost and we can still rise above our situations to find the love within the destruction. The mother, searching for the light and strength.
Many of the Mother and Baby Homes rejected mixed race babies and treated them worse than the other children. We would like to try to heal this wound.
It’s important for us to show the possibility of strength to overcome in the mother’s/queen’s face.
Models
Áine and Johanne had worked together in performance art and she was honoured to be asked to participate in this project. Johanne’s personal story resonated so much with our concept and she felt deeply moved by what we were trying to heal.
Johanne’s mother died when she was young. When Johanne was fifteen she discovered a birth certificate for a brother, she or any other family member, didn’t even know existed. A deep family secret that Patricia, her mother, brought to her grave. It later transpired through a lot of research, that in 1965 her mother had given birth to a mixed race boy in England. The boy’s name was Daniel, and he was two year old when Patricia decided something in the best interest of her son. She knew the Irish world that she came from, and she knew the English world where she lived. It was clear that she would never be able to return to Ireland with her mixed race son. She made the decision that her boy would return to Ethiopia with his father. Patricia returned to Ireland and began a whole new life with Johanne’s dad. She never spoke of her boy again. The day she said goodbye to him, was the last time she saw him.
Looking back at her childhood, in search of clues, Johanne remembers how her mother always insisted that they ate all their food, and that they never complained about being hungry. This is of course because of the Ethiopian famine and how difficult it must have been for her to see the images on the television. Knowing her son was there, somewhere, alive or dead or starving.
Process
Finding a location for this shoot, we wanted to give a nod to the Afican culture as well as the Irish landscape.
When Johanne and Noah arrived at the first location they both agreed, that besides the temperature, they could’ve been in Kenya. It was a beautiful day to begin with on the shoot, but then the weather turned. It started to rain and we were left with very little options. We were shooting near a derelict building and decided to use it to our advantage and go inside. We found some neon graffiti on the walls that we loved. We also felt that since the subject was umbrellaed by domestic abuse, that perhaps a vandalised building could represent that somehow.
It was a difficult shoot for the models and it was raining and cold, but they smiled every step of the way. We also were honoured by being able to use Emerald and Wax clothing from a designer in Galway called Virtue Shine. Her clothing really inspired us further.
4. MOTHER CREATION
I exude confidence and I believe holy in myself. I am full. Full of myself and full of my own worth. I am full of my divine creative spirit. I am undefinable. I AM STATUESQUE.
How does it feel to say these words. So many times "she is full of herself" was said to us or we said it of others. Negatively. Let's reclaim this now. We deserve to be full ourselves, if we are not, we are full of other’s opinions of us! We have this life. It is our opportunity to be kind and gentle, not only to others but to ourselves. Love your neighbour, yes, but love yourself. How can you give love if you don't feel love. Compassion for ourselves. Mná na hEireann, if we barrage ourselves and each other at any given presumed fault or failure how will we heal? We cannot give if we are empty and we need to give to each other now. We can fill ourselves with collective compassion, rise above our pain and together we can heal in harmony.
Model - Nadine Reid
From the first moment I heard Nadine's voice, I fell in love. She was our concept and more. She immediately offered us her love, appreciation and support for our project. She understood what we asked of her. We asked her to become the Madonna and to empower Irish women to embody their icon. Be proud and beautiful, whatever size, colour or tribe. There is but one tribe. Our tribe.
Speaking to Nadine on the shoot she told me that working as a makeup artist she had never met women who hated themselves as much as Irish women. Even after spending an hour highlighting their natural beauty, they couldn't accept it. This is so sad and familiar to me.
I want more than ever to be able to 'bathe in my success", as Nadine said to me, alas it is difficult. As Irish women, we find it hard to own our beauty. On the drive to the shoot, a friend told me a story.
An American man, in his time in Ireland made an observation. Irish women have a huge capacity to carry and hold grief, and do so. This was important to hear. Nadine shone her light that day and held an example of what I wish for us all. Oozing confidence and owning her space.
PROCESS
The idea behind Mother Creation was to represent a real woman. I wanted to look at the earliest known example of figurative art worldwide. A woman. The goddess effigies. I found the Venus of Willendorf to be beautiful and fascinating. A possible deity shrouded in mystery. In existence since 40,000BC.
We also wanted to create a Black Madonna. I was brought to many beautiful images of Her. Especially statues. I finally arrived with an image of a fuller figured Black Madonna. Gorgeous and full of her beauty, love and compassion for all.
5. AIRMID / HEALERS
This is the passing of the knowledge to remind women of their deep connection to the earth, the universe and natural order of the world.
Ever present is the collective vibration of fear.
Our bodies remember the persecution for being our powerful selves. That memory is passed from generation to generation.
It’s time to reclaim the power that was robbed from our ancestors. Women who are unapologetic, who are healers, intuitive and truly in touch with their divine feminine.
Channeling our ancient witch. This is a generational piece. Three generations of women.
Process
We wanted to find out where the insecurity of women stemmed from. Why do we apologise for having an opinion, or why do we assume that someone else knows what is in our best interests, better than us. Why are we hesitant to stand out, or look good, to take a compliment or to stand up for ourselves? We couldn’t help but explore the persecution of women. We explore that there is trauma deeply carved in our collective conscience from the time of the witch trials. Women were persecuted for being healers, midwives, seers, clairvoyant, beautiful, full of life and anything other than submissive and obedient. This is a difficult pattern of inheritance to heal or to absolve. Our mannerisms are passed down from generation to generation through the female line. Be quiet, don’t stand out, go with the flow…..all helpful if you risk being burned at the stake for having an opinion, but detrimental if you wish for female autonomy and freedom.
We took the line of knowledge literally and went with the generational ancestry. Where you, as an egg existed in your grandmother’s womb. She carried your mother, and whilst your mother was in her mother’s womb, you were there as an egg in her ovaries. A possible life within a life, within a life. This is where we are all one. All hearts beating to the same rhythm, within the same host. The three generational piece.
We also wanted to show how even with the grandmother coming from another culture or land, that her daughter and granddaughter are Irish women. All three being part of this land. Our land. We chose the McKays.
Models
Aloma, Jeannie and Ruby. Mother, daughter and granddaughter. They were keen to represent all of their heritage. They made sure to give a nod to their Indian, Scottish and Irish connections. Jeanie wearing the family tartan and her mother wearing a sari.
We chose locations around their home town of Ennistymon. The town that embraced Aloma and her family of five boys and one girl, when her husband died suddenly. Jeannie was three years old when he passed. Jeannie and her family are well know in the community. Although Jeannie is an extremely busy mother of three and worker of three jobs, she made sure to make time for this project.
She was amazed that her mother managed to climb a ladder and stand on a slippery stone wall, in order for us to capture a moment. The weather was stunning and the experience was great for everyone.
OUR PERSONAL REFLECTION
The whole process of hearing the model’s stories and finding the right energy to shoot was a fascinating journey for us. All of these deeply harrowing histories, as humans, or women, that we go through and we are still able to rise from. I feel like there was a power in the recognition and the telling of the stories. When a story is validated and heard, it can be healed, but when left in the shadows it will never be moved. To be seen, is to be heard, is to be healed. We have arisen from a culture of secrets and shame. We now have the platforms to shine the light on our darkest secrets and move forward. The stories that we would prefer were not part of our history or our present, simply do not go away by being ignored.
Working in partnership helped us understand further that we all need support. Different eyes and reflections. A hand to hold and help us see the truth. We stayed true to ourselves and our vision. Remaining authentic at every step and being able to admit our ignorance and asking to be educated. When one of us would fall, the other would catch, but even better, would see where they were going to fall and warn them of the obstacle!
With Myriam’s mastery of design and vision and Áine’s emotional connection to the models and ability to direct their intention, they were able, together to achieve what you see before you. A collaboration to empower women.
Our aim of this project is to illuminate the spark in Irish women's hearts. Showing Ireland the diversity and strength of its women. A walk through the portal to a world where the feminine is adored, nurtured and protected.
A transformation. To let go of the past, rebirth the now and live in their new found sovereign power.
Thank you,
Myriam Riand & Áine O’Brien
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Myriam Riand
Myriam Riand is a visual artist based in Ennistymon, Co. Clare. Her recent work has been inspired by the vibrant local creative scene where she has collaborated with a variety of musicians, writers and artists. Choosing film photography as her medium of choice, she adapts her designs to incorporate the texture and deliberate imperfections of analog image making.
Website & instagram: @myriamdelirium
Áine O'Brien
Áine O'Brien is a conceptual artist, songwriter and performer who is based in Kilfenora Co.Clare. Her childhood was steeped in the tradition of storytelling and she continues this art through her different mediums. She is deeply impassioned to assist the healing and freeing of women from trauma.
instagram: @aineo_brien