The work created for my major project is about landscape and identity (among other things). It is about representing Ireland. Early in my research for my extended written project I came across Catherine Nash’s Remapping and Renaming New Cartographies of Identity, Gender and Landscape in Ireland. In it she discusses the work of Kathy Prendergast, an Irish artist who’s practice is concerned with gender and geography and who utilises maps in some of her work. Since reading it I have been interested in the link between what we refer to as landscape – an arbitrary genre of photography – and cartography and mapping.
Both landscape and cartography concern themselves on a surface level at least with how the land is pictured but they are about far more than that. Issues such as ownership and land use – to name but two – lurk beneath this surface impression. In the case of Ireland – the place – what usually comes to mind inside my head at least when I hear the word is the green map that resembles a figure reaching an arm out into the Atlantic. Always green, Ireland has been deliberately branded as a pure and natural place. In the 1950’s it was John Hinde’s postcards but today with the wild atlantic way we have reached new levels of sophistication in portraying the Island of Ireland as some hyperreal adventure playground that has nothing to do with the lived experience of life in Ireland.
At the same time as all of this sophisticated marketing is being pushed out we also find that there are more and more environmental issues and short comings that date back many years. Usually these are in direct contrast to the represented hyperreal ireland that is projected by the tourist board. For instance there is an ongoing issue with waste water and sewage all around the country which is regularly a feature of the Enviromental Protection Agency. Perusing their extensive website I came a cross a report which featured the two maps of Ireland that feature below. I have turned both into souvenirs. These maps features on some tote bags and fridge magnets that I have had made for assessment submission.
In addition to the maps I have also been experimenting with using images and text combined and turned into a series of fridge magnets. Some use straight forward image with text such as Ireland, the image of the map is unadorned but for others I have used typical Irish sayings such as – may the road rise up to meet you – or, directly inspired by Nostalgia for the Future by John Kippin – Yeats Country. The image and text combination work to say something more than either could do alone and then given that these are designed as souvenirs I hope to cause someone pause for reflection.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Finally I have had postcards created from the work exhibited in Ballina. I chose certain images and designed a logo that eventually became the title of the entire presentation – or re-presentation.
The title of the piece is Unpacking Ireland. Once I had created all of the different items I had to think about how I was going to ship them for unpacking at the assessment. A plain cardboard box seemed all wrong. As my work is connected with the tourist representation of Ireland I thought maybe an old steamer trunk but this wasn’t possible for reasons of practicality – too expensive and too bulky. A suitcase seemed like a good idea but it had to be the right suitcase. Any old suitcase just wouldn’t do. While searching around on the internet for ideas I remembered reading about how the less well off travellers would often use cardboard suitcases and began to look at some of these. It seemed practicable as it would be light for postage and the one I eventually found seemed about the right size to house my new collection and would make for an interesting presentation (I hope) at assessment.
These souvenir tea towels, fridge magnets, the photo book, the snow globes, the real ireland calendar were all packing inside and in addition I have placed an artists statement with them to help contextualise the work. Also the suitcase struck me as a metaphor that was very apt for tourist photography. Tourist photography takes something, say for example a place, and compresses it down from three dimensions to two and conceals all of the issues, the complexities etc. beneath a surface veneer that conceals more than it reveals.
sustainingmypractice 