About

Mandy O’Neill uses expanded photography practice in an instinctual and responsive manner, as a way to understand, process and contain the material and social environments in which we live. She is especially interested in the political and social contexts of our built environment – from schools and community venues, to housing and institutional buildings.

Her multi-layered methodology begins with the act of walking and photographing, where she identifies sites of interest. Geo-historical research and social engagement with communities reveals the lived experiences of these sites, often unearthing their socio-political and ideological underpinnings.

 Works produced are informed by material engagement and material thinking – with the photograph as a point of departure. Recent developments in O’Neill’s practice have included installation, text, video and sound, and a site-responsive approach to exhibition making.

 Drawing on Tim Ingold’s concept of ‘correspondence’, she sees her various projects, not as fixed, but interrelated, with the material outcomes as iterative developments of practice. In this sense her work is ongoing and generative, reflexive and responsive to past endeavours, present realisation  and future potential.