Caitriona Dunnett is an Irish artist based in the UK. Her practice is influenced by the land and its stories. She explores the heritage of the layered landscape and in cases intertwines it with personal narratives. 

A beautiful walk etched into the Kerry coastline stirred an interest to research and photograph Mass Paths in the Irish landscape, to tell the story of the thousands of people who risked all to attend secret mass during penal times. A Well Trodden Path continues this work, a partnership project with Dr Hilary Bishop that explores the remnants of mass paths in Galway. Parishioner Monica Holland remembers walking the paths barefoot, her shoes tied together over her shoulder. She wiped them clean before putting on her socks and shoes for mass. 

Hill Close Gardens, local to Dunnett, is one of the last groups of detached Victorian pleasure gardens. She has been drawn to the gardens’ sense of peace and its archive of past tenants and owners including a photograph of an unknown young man in his Sunday best posing by a summerhouse, Mary Hooper reclining in the morning sun reading her newspaper and Mrs. Savage proudly standing by her prize lily. Working with her mother’s recollections, family photos and her own memories, Dunnett attempted to recreate her grandfather’s garden on the banks of Loch Long. The Lost Garden, recalls the sweet sharpness of the mint that grew in the back and the heady scent of roses on a warm summer evening.

Dunnett has been using contemporary techniques, converting digital files into contact negatives to create handcrafted prints. Mostly working with the cyanotype, an early non-toxic photographic technique introduced by John Hershel, she tones her Prussian blue prints. Hill Close Gardens was toned with pomegranate, A Well Trodden Path with a leading brand of Irish tea, a favourite of many who walked the paths and Mass Paths was toned with a popular 19th century English tea that was once used to dye a Royal Christening gown. 

Experimenting is central to Dunnett’s practice, as is finding the appropriate technique to convey her stories, working with camera-less photographic techniques, such as the lumen process to record the interaction between plants, surface and light. Strawberry Leaves was created by placing the plant directly on top of photographic paper, though unfixed the print will fade. Dunnett’s practice explores memory. She is intrigued by the traces people leave behind, the paths they weave through time and the legacies attached to them.