Welcome to
Little Houses

"Each artwork is the individual expression of a young person living in the Stoneybatter area. Some created in miniature what they missed most about being separated from friends and family or the recreational activities they could no longer take part in. Others took an opportunity to make their ideal place to escape to, or use the new recurring mask motif and two metre rule that have now become habitual. Three of these individual expressions are then brought closely together to create a Little House. These houses then form into a street-like row or vertically into an apartment block, a couple float detached from all the others. While these architectural arrangements echo the housing found in Stoneybatter, the groupings also act as metaphors for another aspect of lockdown - how it isolated some people while simultaneously instigating new communities just on the other side of a wall.

Housemates and familieswere forced to spend time together, cheek by jowl with maybe no access to an outdoor area. Working, studying, eating and relaxing all in just one or two rooms, while others had access to entire houses with large gardens. Whether being alone for a long period of time or constantly surrounded by other people, feeling isolated during this time was a common experience.
Creatively expressing their experiences through the transformation of everyday materials into mini versions of themselves and their spaces, these young people encourage the viewer to reflect and help articulate our own experience of lockdown."

Maria McKinney, Guest Curator

"The beauty of the Little Houses project is that there is no right or wrong. This project is highlighting the positive things in young people's lives during the Covid pandemic. The young people are using art to express themselves by creating their own room. It's about their dreams, what makes them happy or sad, or what did they miss the most during lockdown.

All the rooms are so different and at the same time they do have certain things in common. It was so interesting for me as a youth worker to see what they made as everyone more less received the same art materials. So much creativity and talented young people we have here in Stoneybatter"

Johanna Visser, Youth Worker, Stoneybatter Youth Service

"For me, the journey of being involved with Little Houses began in the middle of the pandemic when we dropped off the materials to peoples’ homes. It felt as though we were reaching out to them but without really knowing how they were coping. I do remember that most were happy to see a friendly face on the doorstep.
When the little rooms began to filter back, I felt very emotional. Some went to great lengths to express themselves, and some kept it simple. You could read a lot into the images and let your imagination run wild. This is what I have always loved about art over the years that I have been a youth worker.

I enjoyed exploring the concept of house and home with other professionals and the young people. It was interesting to look at feelings, practices and relationships in the context of spaces that are familiar.

In our homes we experienced a range of emotions and feelings. Some people felt fragile, some felt sheltered. Hopefully, most people felt that home was somewhere where they experienced a sense of belonging."

Billy McCrea, Youth Worker, Stoneybatter Youth Service

"The artworks on display in the exhibition were created in isolation of friends and peers. In the same way, we had to plan the exhibition remotely. Despite the distance, and the challenges the last year and a half has posed for each and every one of us, it is incredible to see this exhibition come together. Every person involved in this exhibition brought their creativity, imagination and individuality to the ‘board’, perfectly capturing a moment in time. This unique insight into everyday life, during a significant period in our history, is a highly valuable resource to have in a museum, as each artwork is a unique record of emotion, experiences and events"

Caragh May O’Mahony, Education Assistant, National Museum of Ireland

"The lockdown reduced all of our habitats to a strangely small circle. It was we'd been handed a magnifying glass and told we must find everything we might possibly need, in the minutiae of our immediate locality, to find the universal in the particular. The young people in Little Houses showed us what they found, in a creative and genuine way that is characteristic of people of their age, but also of the special community in which they live. As someone who also lives in the Dublin 7 community, it was a privilege to be part of the project and process. If you were going to be locked down anywhere, this was the place to be."

Luke McManus, Exhibition Videographer

From the start of Lockdown, the Museum actively collected to reflect the impact of the pandemic on our lives. The ‘Little Houses’ exhibition provides us with a rich and important record of young people’s responses which can be added to this collection. Each and every artwork reflects or expresses something about this strange, challenging and hopefully unique time. The range of themes explored is rich and varied, from very moving stories of loss and loneliness to the hilarious and joyful. The exhibition is an important record of the pandemic for the Museum, and I’m sure the artworks will resonate with and engage our Museum visitors.

The artworks, which explore the theme of “home” and the spaces where young people lived during lockdown, also resonate and connect with the Museum as a former Barracks and home for soldiers and also with many of the exhibitions and artefacts in the Museum’s collections."

Helen Beaumont, Education Officer, National Museum of Ireland

I was delighted to be asked to photograph the pieces that form this exhibition. In many ways it was not so different from the work I normally do, but this time in miniature...which was appropriate, given how all our lives shrunk during Lockdown.

When we are forced to focus on small things, our immediate environment, the things that are really important, come to the fore; our friends and family, our games and hobbies, our fears, dreams and desires. All these things and more were on display as I photographed these little houses; some joyous, some mischievous, some heart-breaking...but always resilient, even under the most challenging of circumstances. It was a joy to be involved.

Andrew Sheridan, Exhibition Photographer