'Iman' - New Photographs by Noel Bowler
DLR
Per Cent for Art Programme Place & Identity presents
'Iman' - a new series of photographs by Noel Bowler
In June 2009, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council presented 'Iman' (Faith), a new body of work by photographer Noel Bowler, as part of the Place & Identity per cent for art programme of commissions. The images were exhibited in Airfield, Dundrum. Over the course of a year Noel undertook an extensive body of photographic work in the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland in Clonskeagh and within the wider Islamic Community.
Using the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland as a base for this work, Noel was welcomed into the very heart of the Islamic Community in Ireland and immersed himself in the culture and day-to-day running of this centre. This photographic work aims to explore and examine the unique multiculturalism of the Islamic community in Ireland. Unlike other European cities where longer established Islamic communities have settled within their own ethnic groups, the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland is home to Muslims from across the world who congregate to worship in the shared languages of Arabic and English.
The resultant images are a testament to the personal engagement between the artist and this absorbing environment. Using portraiture and environmental images, Noel presented an unprecedented series of images that explore the private acts of worship, the intimacy of the family home and the beauty of Islamic Architecture in an attempt to document the character of Islam within an Irish context. This new work presents a fascinating look into an aspect of contemporary Ireland through the medium of photography.
'Iman' is part of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council's Place
and Identity programme of Per Cent for Art commissions funded through the
Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.
Further information on 'Iman' and the Place & Identity programme
is available from: Ciara King, Public Art Programme Administrator,
E: cking@dlrcoco.ie T: +353 (0)1 271
9529
