This Divided Land
9 images Created 17 Jan 2018
Photography has the language of evidence embedded in its data. If it took to the witness stand, it would speak of the witness as well as of the witnessed. It has been used to record everything from crime scenes to lunar exploration, as proof of existence, of place, of time. The photographs, memorabilia and testimonies which I have assembled in This Divided Land form a dislocated skeleton on which hangs the evidential role division plays on those who live in Belfast.
Ireland is divided by bridges, rivers and unmarked fields: a blurred demarkation unclear to all but the map makers. In contrast, sections of Belfast are walled in like ghettos. Houses support windows protected with steel mesh to prevent them being smashed by the disaffected youth.
It is a divided land where allegiances are tribal, where pavements are painted with the colours of a flag to forewarn those not of your faith, to stay away or beware; where the Union Jack is twinned with the Israeli flag and the Irish republican colours paired with the emblem of Palestine.
Ireland is divided by bridges, rivers and unmarked fields: a blurred demarkation unclear to all but the map makers. In contrast, sections of Belfast are walled in like ghettos. Houses support windows protected with steel mesh to prevent them being smashed by the disaffected youth.
It is a divided land where allegiances are tribal, where pavements are painted with the colours of a flag to forewarn those not of your faith, to stay away or beware; where the Union Jack is twinned with the Israeli flag and the Irish republican colours paired with the emblem of Palestine.