THE DISPLACED SERIES
SAILING OR DROWNING SERIES
I started this body of work some years ago with paintings of fishermen at different stages of drowning with the coast just a short distance away. Irish fishermen traditionally wore highly ornate (Aran) sweaters not just for warmth but because they were so durable that they could be used to identify the bodies of those who drowned. In my own family, as in many others, there has been a number of drownings but, in Ireland where people feel such passion for the land they also feel passion for the sea and the danger does not seem to discourage them from swimming in treacherous waters.
The series, which is ongoing and evolving, is inspired by my fascination with the link between personal or communal narratives, landscape and travel; how everyday activities like knitting, building sandcastles, holiday making can continue alongside the most terrible happenings. I feel gripped by the notion of us sailing past our lives, our histories - fleeting presences on a vast timeline. Sometimes the images in evidence are based on land formations and cultivation, traces of former civilsations, wartime destruction as well as my memories of how I loved being near the sea as a child and how drowning was such a commonplace tragedy in the Ireland at that time.
The commonplace nature of this tragedy continues today as people drown in their hundreds fleeing war zones, crossing the seas in battered, overcrowded boats, vessels of true desperation. For those of us on shore we watch on television the unfolding dramas, the terrible personal struggles to survive, we watch at a distance.
The series, which is ongoing and evolving, is inspired by my fascination with the link between personal or communal narratives, landscape and travel; how everyday activities like knitting, building sandcastles, holiday making can continue alongside the most terrible happenings. I feel gripped by the notion of us sailing past our lives, our histories - fleeting presences on a vast timeline. Sometimes the images in evidence are based on land formations and cultivation, traces of former civilsations, wartime destruction as well as my memories of how I loved being near the sea as a child and how drowning was such a commonplace tragedy in the Ireland at that time.
The commonplace nature of this tragedy continues today as people drown in their hundreds fleeing war zones, crossing the seas in battered, overcrowded boats, vessels of true desperation. For those of us on shore we watch on television the unfolding dramas, the terrible personal struggles to survive, we watch at a distance.