Orla Irish-Hurlow

Portland, Oregon

Throughout this series of constructed photographs of unusual conflict and tension, I explore how absurdity and play can serve as an entry point into something serious; something urgent about the world we live in. I’m speaking about collapse, contradiction, conflict, and the confusion of being alive…being a woman in the current moment. This work is directly informed by how conflict and power today feel simultaneously serious and ridiculous, creating a visual environment that mirrors our collective distrust, a push and pull within a polarized political system. This disorienting and frustrating feeling is what I aim to build within the photograph. I invite the viewer to question the power dynamics within the frame and consider how those tensions echo far beyond it.