Artist Statement: Sinead Bligh.

My practice continues to explore epistemologically the different interpretations of space as a means of analysing and theorising its experience. Central to this is an interest in the mapping of movement through space – through recording and investigating the mindfulness of inhabiting landscapes as you travel through them. The work explores the banal, in-between spaces we move through that are at once both imminent and transient, employed through the various mediums of sound and video installation, text, print and photography. This use of multimedia processes in turn reflects the various ways in which knowledge is assimilated into contemporary society.

Drawing on the writings of poet and cultural critic, Eileen Myles, [1] the work utilises Myles’s phrase ‘inbetweenness’ in expressing the transitional state of movement through a public space within the privacy of one’s individual experience. Myles’s essays are an account of her travels in Iceland, which assert inbetweenness as being ‘the most vital and poetic position to view the world as a whole’.

Concurrently the work is informed by the study of human geography, in particular theories surrounding the social construction of knowledge. The writings of human geographer Donald McNeill [2] have been particularly influential in the work. McNeill highlights the profound influence that modes of travel through the landscape have on an individual’s social consciousness. Also influencial are the writings of Irit Rogoff [3] in her discussions concerning geography’s visual culture. I utilises Rogoff’s term the ‘curious eye’ directly in my current work. Henri Lefebvre [4] is also referenced in the work, through Lefebvre’s epistemological writings on space. The recording of everyday wanderings of contemporary artists John Smith, Francis Alys, and David Hall, are influential to the work through their translation of social tensions into narratives that intervene in the multiple imaginary landscapes of a single place. 

[1]The Importance of Being Iceland: Travel Essays in Art, Eileen Myles, MIT Press, 2009.

[2] New Europe: Imagined Spaces (Donald McNeill, 2004).

[3]Irit Rogoff - Terra Firma: Geography's Visual Culture, 2000. pg30. In this chapter Rogoff calls on the development of the ‘curious eye’ to counter the old bourgeois term 'the good eye' to communicate a contemporary way of viewing which is influenced by the subjectivity of the viewer influenced by all aspects of visual culture and culture in general.

[4]Henri Lefebvre – Texts: The Production of Space and Rhythmanalysis: space time and everyday life.

Sinead Bligh is the recipient of The Arts Council of Ireland Travel and Training Award 2011.