Anthony Remedy (consultant) along with Corina Gaffey (stylist) and Naomi Gaffey (photographer) turned 500 empty advertising spaces across Dublin into a public exhibition of inspiring of photographic work by 27 Irish photographers from 22nd June to 12th July.
Where did you spend lockdown?
I live in Dublin city centre with my wife, and we spent nearly the whole time in our apartment. I love to watch movies of all types, so it was a perfect opportunity to catch up on some classics films hanging out at home. I watched at least two or three movies a day. Between films and listening to many podcasts, relatively elaborate meals were made, and our little dog Teddy Bear was walked a lot around the empty streets of Dublin city centre.
Did you have access to a work space during this time? If not, how did you continue to work?
I nearly always work at home, so nothing majorly changed there. But pretty much all ‘work’ stopped. Which, in hindsight, created an excellent opportunity to take on the positive space.
Where did the idea for the positive space come from? Who else was involved in its development?
The idea for the project came from myself and my wife (Corina Gaffey) walking our dog around a deserted Dublin city centre. I often used poster sites for advertising club events through the years and found it incredibly depressing seeing all the sites greyed out. It was a constant reminder that there was nothing open: no shows, no gigs, no galleries, no cinemas. My sister in law, Naomi Gaffey, who is a photographer, lives in the city too, and also noticed the blank billboards and was documenting them as it was such a rare sight. So we thought it would be an interesting project to fill the negative spaces with positive imagery for the city centre. The positive space aimed to create a city-wide exhibition of photographers work to kindle and inspire up the city.
Given the limitations and restrictions that have been in place how did you manage to pull off the project?
We weren’t aiming small with the positive space; we wanted to pull off something rather significant to make an impact. As in pretty much any other time of life, to do over 500 sites for an outdoor photography exhibition in the best locations in the country wouldn’t be possible. So as the opportunity was there, and we wanted to go for it. There was also a minimal space of time to make this work – ten days or so. We had a wish list of photographers to mail, and we began to contact them. Thankfully everyone was so supportive of the project, totally got what we wanted to do, and were to help! The entire project then began to snowball with some lots of great press; then, the public began to help with contributions on the GoFundMe page. Raising 10K to pay the costs of the project was at the time nerve-wracking, but we had the belief we would get there in the end.
Do you have any upcoming projects?
We are partnering with The Gallery of Photography, to do a poster campaign for Enda Bowe‘s ‘Love’s Fire Song’ exhibition.
All photographs were provided by The Positive Space. To see more of their work visit their website and Instagram.
To see more from the artists involved in The Positive Space: