Photographic Exhibit — "Mantelpieces and the Mundane: Homemaking and Ireland’s Disappearing History"

Drawing on 18 years of photographic research on the island of Inishbofin, Ireland, Professor Ian Kuijt (Department of Anthropology, Notre Dame) explores mantelpieces, homemaking, and Ireland’s disappearing history in this photographic exhibit.

Based on single-frame color photographic images as well as large-scale composite panoramas comprising 30–40 images, the photographs in this exhibit focus on the central room of post-1900 buildings. The images explore how the mantelpiece served as a location of display above the central hearth and consider the material world of what was left behind on the mantelpiece and in the home when Islanders moved away.

This creative research produces large-scale photographs to reflect upon the soft footprint of intergenerational rural abandonment.

Open to the public during Hesburgh Library operating hours.

About the Artist

Ian Kuijt is a professor of anthropology at the University of Notre Dame. As an archaeologist, film-maker, and photographer, he conducts multidisciplinary research that combines anthropology with historical and prehistoric archaeology. He is the author of Island Places, Island Lives: Exploring Inishbofin and Inishark Heritage, Co. Galway, Ireland. Wordwell, Ltd, Dublin, co-editor of The Archaeology of Ireland in the Age of Improvement, Routledge Press, and the 2026 social documentary film 14 Liters of Ukrainian Blood (14 літрів української крові) (75 min), which explores the human impact of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. He is the director of the Cultural Landscapes of the Irish Coast Project.