Paul Seawright –
Sectarian murders
At first
glance, Paul Seawright’s ‘Sectarian Murders’ appears to be a set of
artistically shot photographs of parks and beauty spots, although some do
feature less attractive locations. It is only on reading the text beneath that
the purpose of the project becomes clear; the images show a collection of
locations where people were murdered on the grounds of their religion.
Although
I knew the title of the set, I still found it shocking viewing images of play
equipment followed up with a description of the terrible events that happened
there. My initial thoughts are that this method of mixing art with documentary
has much more impact than if they were more factual shots as you may see in a
newspaper.
Seawright’s
work has been criticised for not being explicit enough; his response to this is
that if the meaning were given away too freely, the work would become
journalistic. Art should give people space to create their own meanings; it
should engage them and draw them in slowly. He feels that the challenge is to
find the balance between explicit, journalistic work and that which is so
ambiguous, it loses all meaning.
The text
under Seawright’s images gives a definite context to the images, opening up a
whole new set of meanings for the viewer. This new meaning will depend on many
things, their religious and political stance, how close they live to the area,
whether they are personally involved in this or a similar event. Whatever their
background, it would be difficult not to feel the jolt as art meets context.
Looking
back at the images, it then becomes clear than many of the images appear to be
taken from the eyes of the deceased; low set images taken from ground level or
behind a bush, one showing life carrying on regardless as a dog ambles past;
another level of understanding creeps in.
Resident
at Belfast Print Workshop Gallery, Seawright displays his collection of war
imagery; many being layered screen prints of military surveillance maps and
satellite imagery to create abstract works. He also shows text-based works,
representing a personal side of war, entitled ‘Christian’ and ‘Summer’. While
Summer lists names of Iraqi people killed in the war in the space of one week,
Christian lists the names of soldiers killed in the war. Rather than list the
full names and ranks of the soldiers, Seawright opts to only use Christian
names, giving a more personal note; these are not represented as soldiers, but
people, shown to us as they are known by their loved ones.
As with
Sectarian Murders, we are drawn into this work at a deeper level of
consciousness than if it had been a more explicit set; because of this, the
work will have a greater impact and remain with us for much longer.
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