The Tapestry Room

The Tapestry Room, running from June 8 - Aug 17 in Garter Lane Gallery, is an exhibition inspired by Loftus Hall, the foreboding building that was framed by my childhood window in Dunmore East. Returning home to Waterford after fifteen years, I seek to honour “the most haunted house in Ireland” through a personal response to the devil’s fabled appearance during a card game there in 1785. 

As a girl I was fascinated with the fact - and I do believe it’s a fact - that Loftus Hall is haunted. As I grew a bit, I wanted to know why it was haunted, and soon the devil character became less interesting than Anne herself. I found that the most haunting part of the story for me was where it traditionally ends - with Anne being locked in the Tapestry Room, heartbroken, after the devil fled the scene. 

That experience of someone leaving you without saying goodbye, and the confusion and isolation that follows that, is the scariest part of this ghost story. That’s why I wanted to create a space that reflects a teenage girl’s bedroom - with tapestries containing some of the thoughts and dreams of a girl trapped indoors with nothing but her memories to keep her company, missing someone who, for all intents and purposes, ruined her life.

The artwork throughout presents an interpretation of the tapestry room where one card game transformed a girl’s internal world. The artworks blend folklore with contemporary perspectives, addressing themes of isolation, infatuation, and introspection through motifs found in the building itself as well as visual references to playing cards, tarot, alchemy, astrology, religion and various other tools we use to understand fate.

In a collection of suspended woven blankets and textile collages, the exhibition invites viewers to navigate a girl's inner journey, as she tries to make sense of her experiences from the enclosure of her room. 

All photos courtesy of DGM Photographic.