Reilly Narod

Interiors

"Interiors" emerges as an autobiographical trilogy of psychological self-portraits, revealed acrossthree stages of life—childhood, parenthood, and death. While each stage differs compositionallyand conceptually, the images exist within a shared universe: a derelict, abandoned home, ametaphor for enduring emotional neglect.Drawing from the children’s story, The Velveteen Rabbit, written by Margery Williams, "I havealways been lonely", positions love as both a force of transformation and erosion. The workreflects an enduring personal desire to be chosen and to attain a sense of existential permanencethrough the recognition of another, a desire shaped by persistent feelings of loneliness.Transitioning from childhood, "Will I, I, I" examines themes of parenthood through the lens ofpainful generational cycles. Parenthood is not presented as a purely biological anxiety but framedas a psychological and moral dilemma defined by responsibility, fragility, and the potential forfailure. Additionally, elements of occult symbolism merge with domestic spheres to heighten themore immaterial concerns associated with parenthood. Finally, "My Most Loyal Companion"examines death from the perspective of existential anxiety, emerging from personal experienceswith existential obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The work manifests as self-articulatedbrain surgery, a relentless and intrusive scalpel-like rupture of the psyche that renders the mind asite of violence.Working through a staged photographic practice inspired by cinematic production, each imageinvolved extensive measures of set design and fabrication, allowing for deliberate intervention totake place within image-making, departing from photography’s documentary function. Interiorsultimately seek to privilege emotional and psychological truth over realism, and personalnarratives are revealed through symbolic environments, inviting viewers to acknowledge theirown histories, desires, cycles, and uncertain trajectories that shape human experience.