Patrick "Paddy" Jolley was an Irish photographer and filmmaker born in 1964 and passed away in 2012. He hailed from County Down, Northern Ireland. At the tender age of 15, he moved with his family to the picturesque village of Dunmore East in County Waterford.
Jolley's academic journey began when he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Printmaking from the renowned National College of Art and Design in Dublin in 1989. This marked the beginning of his journey in the art world. He then resided and worked in London and New York before finding his true calling in Prague, where he met his partner, artist Inger Lise Hansen.
In 1994, Jolley was awarded a prestigious scholarship to pursue his Master of Fine Arts in photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York. This opportunity propelled him to experiment with film, a medium that would become a significant part of his artistic expression. He returned to Ireland in 1996 and continued to travel extensively, primarily in Eastern Europe.
In 1998, Jolley participated in the residency program at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, followed by a residency in New York as part of MoMA PS1's International Studio Programme. This marked the beginning of a long-standing collaboration with film-maker Reynold Reynolds. Their first short film, 'Seven Days 'Til Sunday', won Jolley the Best New Director award at the Cork Film Festival and was screened at the prestigious Tate Modern in London.
Their subsequent project, 'The Drowning Room', was screened at the Sundance Film Festival and is part of several significant collections, including the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein. The film installation 'Burn' was included in the 3rd Berlin Biennale and is part of the collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Following the events of 9/11, Jolley relocated to Berlin before returning to New York to create one final film with Reynolds, 'Sugar', in 2005. He also collaborated with artists Inger Lise Hansen and Rebecca Trost on the film 'Here After', which is part of the collection at the Irish Museum of Modern Art.
Jolley then returned to Ireland, where he produced nine solo films in the span of eight years. His film 'The Door Ajar', a surreal visualisation of Antonin Artaud's traumatic visit to Ireland, deviated from his usual format of non-verbal shorts and was exhibited at Dublin Contemporary 2011.
Tragically, Jolley passed away suddenly in January 2012, leaving behind a rich legacy of innovative and thought-provoking work.
