Roscommon Arts Centre
2 February – 29 March 2024
Lorraine Tuck’s exhibition ‘Unusual Gestures’ elevates the depiction of family life to an artform, and, in the process, extends the boundaries of what is made visible. A documentary photographer, Tuck photographs what surrounds her: her family, her environment, her reality.
My first encounter with ‘Unusual Gestures’ was during its premiere at Galway International Arts Festival in 2023. Recently seen again at Roscommon Arts Centre, ‘Unusual Gestures’ is still an emotive viewing experience. A highly personal body of work, it is a photographic documentary on Tuck’s family life – a life that includes intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorder. The title ‘Unusual Gestures’, derived from her younger son’s way of communicating, describes the exhibition’s essential element, that is, the everyday aspect of living with the exceptional.
Tuck has a distinctive aesthetic of vibrant colour and informal composition. She is drawn to documentary photography and studied under Paul Seawright at the University of Wales, Newport. She doesn’t apply hard and fast rules to her practice, and is no longer preoccupied with specialist photographic equipment. Many of her photographs are taken spontaneously and intuitively. She tends towards shooting multiple times, leaving her with what she describes as the cruel editing process. She rarely sets up a shot, and states that her current preference for using a 50mm digital camera allows for convenience and immediacy without sacrificing quality. These are the practical decisions of a photographer who is also the mother of four children.
Tuck acknowledges the creative potential of using film, and enjoys experimenting with it. This is seen in one photograph where she used analogue for triple exposure. The resulting grainy, soft-focus image, with a mysterious, dreamy visual effect, sits in contrast to the sharp focus of the other works in the show.
Tuck is highly attuned to colour and light and speaks about the everchanging light in the west of Ireland where she lives with her husband and children on the family farm. Tuck doesn’t see the need for a light meter, and invariably uses ambient light. A captivating photograph of her son Manus, taken at night and relying on the electric light from the nearby cowshed, renders him bathed in a burnt umber glow that gives the image an ethereal quality.
The works in ‘Unusual Gestures’ are untitled, as Tuck feels that titles may diminish the power of the image, and each one of the 68 photographs tells its own story. One photograph showing the artist embracing her son, her ‘forever baby’, as they sit by a river, is full of tenderness and is reminiscent of the Madonna and Child imagery of classical art. Another photograph with an art historical feel is the show’s centrepiece, a large-scale nine-panel ‘pastoral scene’ of the family saving hay together, with a large beech tree as the dominant feature. The image of her son and her uncle, united in a moment of connection, is another work that exemplifies the intimacy Tuck succeeds in capturing so effectively in her photographs.
Lorraine Tuck, ‘Unusual Gestures’, 2023; image © the artist, courtesy of Photo Museum Ireland.
As an advocate for greater visibility and affirmation of intellectual disability, does Tuck view her photography as an advocacy tool as well as an artform? She believes in taking a gentle approach, and the photographs remain open to subjective interpretation. Her commitment to advocacy and inclusion extends to providing workshops as an adjunct to the exhibition. These workshops focus on how photography can be used to help communicate with children with autism or intellectual disability. While Tuck doesn’t name it as such, there is a participatory dimension to her artistic practice, giving rise to powerful social engagement and interaction.
‘Unusual Gestures’ was commissioned and curated by Photo Museum Ireland in 2020. Tuck is keen to acknowledge the support she has received from PMI and from Tanya Kiang, PMI curator. In 2023 Tuck was nominated by PMI for ‘Unusual Gestures’ for the tenth edition of the Prix Pictet, the international award for photography and sustainability. The Arts Council of Ireland has since acquired two of Tuck’s photographic works for its permanent collection. ‘Unusual Gestures’ is a touring exhibition which is now showing at the Regional Cultural Centre in Letterkenny until 1 June, having been officially launched by Professor Paul Seawright on 24 April.
Mary Flanagan is an art writer and researcher based in County Roscommon.
