This series of drawing were the beginnings of the thought process that led to the installation ‘Lost Lace’ at Dublin’s Iveagh Gardens in 2022. The Installation was made up of approximately ten thousand white roses made by the artist from individual white handkerchiefs. The roses were placed around the fountain at Dublin’s Iveagh gardens in a delicate pattern of traditional Irish Lace. Each Handkerchief rose symbolizes a life lost in Ireland and Northern Ireland due to the Coronavirus Pandemic.
Each single handkerchief rose in this installation references the small cloths or ‘clooties’ that were hung traditionally on trees near the site of holy wells in Pagan Ireland. The handkerchief was believed to drive illness away by absorbing it. The artist has chosen to place them in a floral lace pattern hinting at the concept of the man-made object imitating nature in an attempt to find resolve.
The single rose is a symbol of devotion. Here this devotion becomes collective, signifying the national and personal loss. This installation urged the public to not lose sight of the individual life, the single rose. Mc Connon emphasised the solitary path of individual grief in unison with the national and collective loss, urging the people of Ireland to unite in grief and in the commemoration of the lives lost to Covid 19.
