Peter Rees: An Udder View

Peter Rees: John Collins and Michael Collins with Frank O'Grady back from the winterage 2000

Peter Rees The Legion of Mary Corofin 1998

Peter Rees: The Last Cattle Auction in Kilnaboy 2003

PETER REES

AN UDDER VIEW- DOCUMENTING A COMMUNITY
Kilnaboy 1983 -2008

May 20th to June 13th

If Kilnaboy man Peter Rees: full time truck driver, dedicated part time photographer, had a theme tune it would most certainly be Del Reeves classic, 'Looking at the world through a windshield'. For the past 30 years Peter has been photographing the leavings, returnings, christenings, weddings, communions, births, deaths and any and all other significant events in the parish, amassing a vast collection of pictures chronicling the ever changing ways and days of his friends and neighbours. His truck cab vantage point has given him a better than average point of view of the comings and goings in the community and his archiving nature has kept the evidence neat and accessible in a room full of photo albums.

The advent of Deirdre O'Mahony's Kilnaboy X-PO public arts project has allowed Peter the perfect opportunity to present his work in a dedicated exhibition. The X-PO project being all about rural community, its past, present and future. Peter's work is a perfect fit to follow the mappings and tracings, the videos, paintings and museum style exhibitions Deirdre has already curated for the X-PO. In what is surely a unique exposition of the lives, times and history of a rural parish Deirdre and Peter have spent months, evening by evening, trawling through thousands of pictures, selecting images year by year to make up his show.

For most of his truck driving years Peter Rees drove a creamery tanker famous for its 'Udder Cola' livery. His photographic exhibition, 'An Udder View' – your world, his vision.

Phil Gaston

X-PO is a public art project that seeks to actively engage

rural communities by giving space and time to review,

recall and renew core community values and priorities.