Dianne Whyte

Congratulations to the winner of the Signal Open 2017 Dianne Whyte, some words from the artist below.

I am a photographic artist living in Dublin. Initially from a design background I decided to take up photography after having my second child, initially as a hobby but then I went on to study full time for a BA (Hons) degree in photography at IADT and then an MFA Fine Art Photography with distinction from the University of Ulster, graduating in 2016. I heard about the Signal Arts Open from The VAI newsletter and I was delighted to hear my work was selected as Best in Show, especially as it was the first time a photographic piece was chosen to win.

The photograph that won the Signal Arts award depicts the Trap Room of the Abbey theatre. This is one image from a project that I have worked on for the two years of my MFA called ‘The Trap Rooms’. These trap rooms that lie hidden from view beneath the stages of theatres are a metaphor for the staging of reality that underlies contemporary life. The normally hidden machinery of the theatre, what really drives the spectacle, acts as the social and economic forces that shape our lives. In a philosophical sense they ask questions about the nature of observable reality, what we see is never just what is seen, but merely all that is available to us. My work to date usually is centred around spaces that are not necessarily familiar to us, or spaces that we don’t think about, but once exposed to these normally hidden spaces one is prompted to contemplate.