Selected projects

This page brings together projects that extend my practice beyond individual paintings. These works include art, sculpture, installation, book projects and site-specific interventions, often exploring memory, absence, participation and the traces people leave behind.


Some projects are community-based, while others are more personal or reflective. Although my work is now centred primarily on painting, many of the concerns explored through these projects continue to inform the way I build images and think about presence, concealment and what remains.



For curators, galleries or organisations interested in exhibitions, acquisitions or other professional enquiries, please get in touch →

CONNECTION

Participatory sculpture, artist’s book, print, film and installation, 2018

Connection is a multi-part participatory artwork exploring memory, mark-making and the traces we leave behind. Students and staff across CDETB were invited to make an individual mark in black pen on a page containing a 5 × 5 grid, although they were free to disregard its structure. In total, 169 people contributed marks, which became the starting material for the work.


I digitised each contribution for use across the book, print and installation elements. While developing the wooden sculpture, I redrew every mark several times, creating a deliberate distance between the original gesture and its final form. These redrawn marks were then engraved into sheets of acrylic glass and incorporated into the sculpture.


The project was first presented at Gallery@OXO in 2018 through the wooden sculpture, artist’s book and a short accompanying film. The sculpture was subsequently exhibited at the National Botanic Gardens in 2019. A 1.83 × 1.83 m image from the project was also produced on Dibond and installed for permanent display at CDETB’s Finglas premises, arranged through local management.


Across its different forms, Connection considers what happens when a personal mark passes through another person’s hand. Each contribution retains a trace of its maker, while repetition, redrawing and changes in material gradually separate it from the original gesture.

Connection installed, showing all 169 marks made by students and staff of CDETB

Connection

Digital print on Dibond

183cm x 183cm

On permanent display at CDETB,

Dublin, Ireland


With thanks to the 169 students and staff who made their mark for this project.

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Close-up view of Connection sculpture, 60 pieces of acrylic engraved on both sides mounted in an oiled walnut base
Side view of Connection sculpture showing engraved acrylic panels mounted in an oiled walnut base
Anthony Carey artist and author at book launch at Books Upstairs

Anthony Carey

Connection book launch at Books Upstairs, Dublin, with Anthony Carey seated holding copies of the book

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Connection book cover, white with holes punched revealing blue underneath

Connection Book Cover

White cover of Connection Book with circular cut-outs revealing blue beneath, 160 × 160 mm

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Page from Connection book showing mark making in black against a white page
Artist statement page from Connection
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THE VIEWER’S IMAGE: PARTICIPATION AND PRESENCE

These sculptural works, constructed from sisal and encased in clear acrylic with mirrored bases explore themes of identity, duality, and perception. Positioned within reflective enclosures, each head initiates a dynamic exchange between artwork and viewer.


As the observer approaches, their own reflection is merged with the sculpture. This collapse of boundaries between subject and object transforms the piece into a site of self-confrontation. The mirrored base implicates the viewer, layering the visual field and complicating any stable reading of the self.


Drawing upon Jungian concepts of the persona and the shadow, the work reveals the tension between internal identity and external perception. The viewer becomes simultaneously witness and participant, seen and seeing—caught within a feedback loop of self-awareness.


Exhibited at The Berkeley Gallery at Grennan Mill, Kilkenny, 2012, these pieces invite us to consider not only what we see, but how we are seen.

  • You I Am - Old mannequin head wrapped in sisal, encased in a clear acrylic box with a mirrored base

    You I Am - h30 x w28 x w28 cm

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  • What Next, two plaster-covered mannequin heads facing each other inside a clear acrylic box with a mirrored base

    What Next - h30 x w56 x d28cm

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  • Expressly Vacant, two sisal-wrapped mannequin heads facing forward inside a clear acrylic box with a mirrored base

    Expressly Vacant - h30 x w56 x d28cm

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INVISIBLE REFLECTIONS

Site-responsive installation and photographic project, 2021

Invisible Reflections was created from discarded clothing, shoes, plastic packaging, toiletries and other everyday objects, temporarily arranged and photographed within a derelict site. Each object was coated in monochrome grey, removing its individual colour and allowing it to become partly absorbed into the neglected surroundings.


The arrangements suggest the absent bodies of people who are frequently overlooked: the unhoused, the displaced and those pushed to the margins of society. A jacket hangs as though it has just been removed. Shoes are placed with care, as if someone might return. The body is never shown, but its presence remains through the objects left behind.


The installations were temporary and had little or no public audience at the site. Once dismantled, the black-and-white photographs became the lasting form of the project. That limited visibility now feels integral to the work: something was physically present, yet remained largely unseen.


Rather than dramatising suffering, Invisible Reflections asks what, and whom, we learn not to notice. The grey objects hover between visibility and disappearance, carrying traces of lives that can be concealed, neglected or erased.

  • Black-and-white photograph of an empty sleeping bag arranged to resemble a resting body in a neglected alleyway

    Absent Shelter

    Black-and-white photograph of an empty sleeping bag arranged in a neglected alleyway, suggesting an absent body and overlooked presence.

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  • Black-and-white photograph of an empty sleeping bag shaped like a seated body, placed against a wall on a sheet of cardboard

    Temporary Rest

    Sleeping bag and cardboard arranged against a wall, evoking the fragility of shelter and the traces left in public space.

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  • Black-and-white close-up photograph of a worn pair of lace-up shoes placed on cardboard beside a cup and leaves

    Left Behind

    Close-up of worn shoes placed on cardboard beside discarded cups and leaves, reflecting absence, displacement and urban neglect.

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  • Black-and-white photograph of an empty sleeping bag lying beside weeds, cups, and discarded objects in a neglected laneway

    Laneway Trace

    A sleeping bag lies beside weeds and discarded objects in a laneway, marking the edge between visibility and disappearance.

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Site-responsive installation and photographic project, 2021

STORY: A ONE MINUTE FILM


Poster for Story with bold white title text above a crumpled paper coat and patterned blanket, overlaid with partially cropped text reading “Move along SCUM”

Have you got a minute?

In this experimental short, Carey paints a picture of the homeless laments like “I’m sad”, “F*** them, out of sight”, ‘Chat, Empathy, Human”, ‘Rubbish Survive, Shit’ and possibly the most poignant image of all the heavily bandaged fingers of one of Dublin’s homeless people.


View Film Here

Still from Story showing a grayscale interior with a sleeping bag against a wall and the word “STORY” overlaid in bold text
Still from Story showing cardboard on pavement, a patterned blanket, and a paper coat, with the words “Move along SCUM” overlaid

These book projects extend my interest in language, memory, Dublin culture and shared experience into printed form. They sit alongside my visual practice as part of a wider concern with belonging, voice, place and cultural memory.

Orange book cover with large white title text for Ask Me Arse and Other Useful Phrases

Purchase Physical Book

Winding Stair Bookstore, Dublin →


Purchase Digital Book:

Reading edition →

Blue book cover with a round stained-glass window and yellow title text for Letters From Dublin

Purchase Physical Book

Winding Stair Bookstore, Dublin →