Hazel Coonagh // Time and Memory

Hazel Coonagh is an Irish photographer and visual artist who starts with a portrait taken in the ordinary way, and then takes it somewhere else entirely. Through digital manipulation, hand embroidery stitched through paper and canvas, and a visual sensibility drawn from Japanese art, surrealism, and Art Nouveau, her work creates images that feel both completely new and deeply familiar. There's a nostalgia to them that she can't quite separate from the mediums themselves: photography and embroidery are both, at their root, about time and memory. In this episode we trace how embroidery arrived in her practice her incredible RTÉ Illuminations commission during lockdown, the night she saw her work projected onto the Wellington Monument in the Phoenix Park, and the housing crisis piece Halfway to Nowhere, which was made in her back garden with a cardboard house balanced on her head. We talk about The Art Riddler show, independent arts funding in Ireland, and a frank conversation about AI; why it lacks soul, how it's dulling creative taste, and what makes a real photograph irreplaceable. __ Episodes drop regularly. Listen or watch wherever you get your podcasts. Listen on Apple // Listen or Watch on Spotify Patreon and YouTube