Andrea Newman: 'I walked around Mayfield and found 13 more houses boarded up'

An exhibition at the Lavit by Cork artist Andrea Newman draws on her own experience of noticing council houses that have been left uninhabited for months and more 

Cork artist Andrea Newman.

Ireland may well be one of the most prosperous countries in Europe, but most would agree that it is also in the grips of a chronic accommodation crisis. It is timely, then, that artist Andrea Newman has chosen to explore the phenomenon of derelict housing in her exhibition, There is no place like home, in Ireland, at the Lavit Gallery in Cork.

Living in Mayfield, on the northside of Cork city, Andrea Newman has always been aware of the derelict houses in her vicinity. “There was one house in particular that was derelict for at least five years,” she says. “I photographed that over a period of three years, and it was still derelict. Then I thought I should start looking for more of this dereliction. I walked around Mayfield and in half an hour, I found 13 more houses boarded up by the City Council. I live in a council house myself, and I started looking into the statistics to find out why this is happening.