The Fortified Coastline
(Ulster) (2010)
The Fortified Coastline focuses on the built landscape of the Irish coast, highlighting man’s apparent need to reinforce this naturally occurring boundary in order to satisfy physical function or subconscious direction. My work intends to provide a space in which to contemplate these constructed environments, towards which we may have predetermined ideas or a sense of passivity. These artificial constructions and placement of objects caught somewhere between utilitarian and recreational, jar with the fluidity of the surrounding natural environment yet we have become accustomed to them, as they convey something of the urban condition.
Through the isolation and juxtaposition of structures the series comments on man’s organisation of space, relationship with nature with which we are often detached, and the interpretation by the individual within a social and cultural context. By working in series, I aim to identify an iconography of such places, highlighting a stark yet unexpected beauty in these functional objects and associated environments.
This series is supported by the National Lottery through the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.