Suburban Perspective (Originally written for Visual Artists' NewsSheet, July, 2008)
The arts in South County Dublin are based in Tallaght, where the majority of facilities, infrastructure and interest are focused. However, I live in Lucan, with a population of over 37,000 in 2006 and currently on the increase with massive new developments like Adamstown for example; Lucan is expanding and yet Lucan has nowhere for artists to work or exhibit beyond a few odd patches of wall space in the tiny local Library.
Lucan is part of In Context, South Dublin County Council’s Per Cent for Art programme. I saw some evidence of this once, but I find it generally goes unnoticed by the wider community. As a resident of South County Dublin, I am entitled to apply for the local authority artist’s bursary which is awarded annually and is of real benefit. Unfortunately this is all there is of the visual arts in Lucan from a professional standpoint. Lucan seems to be a visual art black-spot.
Ironically, it is because of (or in spite of) this situation, that I tend to always look beyond Dublin, and indeed beyond Ireland. My first solo exhibition was in the newly built Town Hall Art Centre in Charlestown, County Mayo in 2005. The building itself was great, I was catered for very well and yet I couldn’t help but feel a little exasperated by the whole thing; if Charlestown with a population of around 800 could provide me this opportunity, why not Lucan?
To date I have exhibited in the Philippines, UK, US, Australia, Germany, Denmark and China. I have exhibited more times in China than in Dublin, thanks mostly to 411 Galleries. I also publish a lot of work in magazines, both in print and on-line. This is a preferred way for presenting my photographic work and conceptual work although it won’t pay many bills. Of course, South Dublin has a pretty good Broadband network so for an artist who uses the Internet as much as I it is of real benefit. The Internet is vital to my practice from research to presenting work and has been instrumental in getting my work seen beyond Dublin.
A lot of my works explore a suburban identity and the landscape continually informs my approach to ideas. A case in point is the large work I began in 2007 called the STOMP project, which set out to document the specific ‘stomping grounds’ of local teenagers, usually situated near rivers, car parks or next to motorways. I wanted to try to uncover and capture an attitude that exists in suburban Dublin, a psychological outlook reflective of its environment. I received the Exercises in Folkatronica runner-up award from the VAI, which ultimately encouraged me to continue working on the project. The project is not just an ongoing work reflecting my own history with those growing up in South Dublin County at the moment; it is itself becoming a historical record as most of the places I photographed in 2007 have been eradicated by new transport developments in 2008. Using the Internet as a means to present this project, I have taken the local and made it global so to speak.
So, South County Dublin has not only influenced my art practice in practical terms, but also by way of attitude and approach. While I live and work somewhere between the Kildare countryside and Dublin city, I am managing to take advantage of the situation and find alternative methods to overcome the splendid isolation South County Dublin, and Lucan, sometimes finds itself languishing in.
Quantifying Time: Thoughts on a Practice (Originally written for 411Galleries, March, 2008)
My art practice involves the use of cameras, digital video and audio, and the Internet. These are generally considered ‘new media’ yet using such media raises similar concerns to those of the traditional mode. However there is one distinct difference: the involvement of ‘real time’ which brings an alternative perspective and philosophy engaged in the consideration and investigation of transience. As real time brings continuous change, one finds oneself in continuous dialogue with history. As an artist this dialogue is represented by the work I produce; while in creating that work, deepening concerns are raised and explored. One such concern involves seeking out evidence of psychological states relating to the process of time as interpreted by physical activity.
As conscious beings we are constantly aware that time is in control, it moves and we must move with it. So in a vain attempt to gauge this process in a way we can better accept, we perform all manner of activities. It is our innate awareness of our mortality that drives us to perform activities that seem humble, even meaningless. It is said actions speak louder than words, not because language is inadequate, rather because actions carry a direct, traceable path back to the subconscious. Actions carry a meaning that betrays the Will and reaffirms the Instinct; in other words, it is the motive behind the activity, not the goal that is of importance. Time is always running out, so how does it impact on our psyche, and more interestingly how does this manifest itself?
In order to unlock that which cannot be found in a physical reality, one must re-present reality according to its own logic; in essence one must employ the use of poetics, metaphor and allegory to combine the forces of the physical and metaphysical. One must ‘unlock the valves of feeling’ as Bacon put it, by first confronting reality head on.
My work seeks to achieve this ‘unlocking’ not by illustrating an idea or inciting a shock reaction, rather by alluding to it, thus the psyche is teased into responding. Conceptual strategy is employed, whereby the subject, circumstance, production and presentation merge to encourage further suggestiveness in the work thereby increasing the chance of eliciting a sensation in the audience.
Activity is intrinsically linked to sensation, that is to say in order to feel one must do. Whether the activity in question is accidental or contrived, I try to treat each equivalently. If ‘man’s activity is the substance of his consciousness’ as Leontev stated, then it stands to reason that my photographing the results of seemingly inconsequential activities in the physical world, is in fact the capturing of another’s effort to better understand the process of time in the metaphysical world.
It is in the detail that one finds the common denominator; that ‘true life is lived when tiny changes occur’ as Tolstoy asserted, is the summation of this thought. The process of time is best quantified by analyzing the physical debris of the past, thus, much like an archaeologist I re-present that which can be considered a shared history, a point in time that is common to all. In other words, I attempt to substantiate the proof of existence; only through proof can one find potential.
AN Leont'ev (1904 - 1979. Marxist Psychologist)
"In reality the philosophic discovery of Marx consists not in identifying practice with cognition but in recognizing that cognition does not exist outside the life process that in its very nature is a material, practical process. The reflection of reality arises and develops in the process of the development of real ties of cognitive people with the human world surrounding them; it is defined by these ties and, in its turn, has an effect on their development. Human consciousness thus ceases to be an "intrinsic quality of the human spirit" with no history or intractability to causal analysis. We begin to understand it as the highest form of reflection of reality that sociohistorical development creates: a system of objectively existing agents gives birth to it and causal historical analysis makes it accessible to us."
Marxism and Psychological Science
"Man's activity is the substance of his consciousness."