A Confection of Photographs, Nollaig Molloy

Nollaig Molloy’s A Confection of Photographs investigates the assembly of archives and Ireland’s working class histories. Almost one hundred images, each scanned and reproduced from a single storage box found in Carlow County Library, depict the now defunct production of sugar beet. This resource, found by Molloy bunched together inside brown envelopes and pinned with paper clips, encompass moments from the 1920s to early 2000s. Images range from the harvesting of crops, infrastructure development and lives of workers. With an essay by the artist and the incorporation of handwritten notes found alongside these unearthed photographs, a beguiling number of haunting relationships emerge beyond the cogs of industry.