Cordelia Donohoe uses an archive of migrant family photographs from the 1920s to the 1950s in her project The Little Hours.
Donohoe’s project takes the context and form of a medieval Book Of Hours. In the 15th Century these were often commissioned by aspirational families. Their portraits were incorporated in between the stories of the Holy Family and the psalms which marked the hours of the day and night.
In The Little Hours, Donohoe focusses on the mother, who goes from Russian peasant, to Shanghai ‘party girl’ and who is ‘redeemed’ by becoming a wife and the mother of a son. This is highlighted in the collaging and merging of the photographs and the sculptural form of the project’s presentation.
Donohoe holds a degree in Art History from the University of East Anglia and an MA in Fine Art Photography from the London College of Communications.
