Drift

Produced between 2002 and 2006 and supported by a research award from the AHRB, 'Drift' is a series of 21 video works filmed at various times of night and day. It investigated how the often overlooked activities of urban experience are negotiated within a continually shifting demographic determined by economic and social forces. Each installation was devised specifically for the demands of the space, identified as a numerical ‘diagram’ in order to emphasise critical consideration of context.

My method is experimental and here relates to a consideration of practices of time and space, drawing on Michel de Certeau's analysis of the cultural practices of city dwellers and Georgio Agamben’s ‘Notes on gesture’. 'Drift' set out to exploit the peripatetic potential of digital video and extend an investigation into ‘working practices’ seen on and from the street. Through this process, using a fixed frame and slow motion, various activities are recorded to test how the mundane is ‘read’. 'Drift: diagram vii' staged all 21 videos as a six-screen installation in a solo exhibition at The Void Gallery, Derry, 2005 (see image).

Single works and groups of works from the series have also been exhibited in various group shows. Arbeit 'Drift: diagrams vi,viii' and 'xv' exhibited in Arbeit-work at Galerie Im Taxipalais, Innsbruck 2005 toured to Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Cork 2006 and Ormeau Gallery, Belfast 2006 (catalogue ISBN 3-86588-154-8). 'Drift :Diagram iv' and 'v', ‘Out of Place’, The Terrace Gallery, Harewood House, Leeds 2003, and Hatton Gallery, Newcastle 2004 ‘looked at the understanding of place’.

A 59-page book with essay by the curator and critic Caoimhin Mac Giolla Leith (ISBN – 0-9551763-0-1) funded by The Henry Moore Foundation was published by Void to accompany the solo exhibition and in January 2007 The Arts Council of Ireland bought the entire work for the National Collection.

• http://www.derryvoid.com/exhibitions/200...