BORDERLAND

Borderland is a body of work conceived against the backdrop of contemporary and historical events. Its concerns are with the physicality, imaginings, concerns and consequences of what are determined as historical and recent borders dividing our lands and seas.

The work is also aware of the arena of art; with several devices such as form, abstraction and empirical rendering employed to deliberately make the work accessible and simultaneously removed from the reality of consequences of what it might mean to be on the ‘frontline’ of a borderland. These devices invoke cosiness or even romanticized involvement for a viewer, by creating a distanced relationship where my interest lies between the appearance and reality of the final image.

Both the painted images and the ink drawings have a reliance on photographic sources. The ink drawings use the built in filter of graphical interpretation or even poster art, deliberately so as to distance them from the theme and location, the spectator is constantly reminded by the realistic character of the images and of the fictitious nature of the drawn or painted surface.

Some images like ‘Mosque’ and ‘Watcher’ are about bringing abstraction and events to the familiar and to initiate a discussion about the nature of representative images.
Other works like ‘Flag’ and ‘The Brotherhood’ are intended to invoke concepts of nationhood past & present, ‘Flag’ particularly invokes the fading ism of borders and consequence of unions throughout Europe for many reasons, hence the desaturation of colours of the painted flag. These works are also heavily reliant on the painted surface. ‘Watching’ is a self-referential image - receiving and interpreting, once again to make aware the manner in which things and painting are seen and shown and forces us to think about the representation of images and forms.

 

Ian Healy
January 2008