Confrontation
Conte crayon, pastel
75 x 110 cm
1977

A Child’s Funeral
Conte crayon, pastel
110 x 75 cm
1977

Artist’s Notes

In my youth in Belfast I was formed in a place where sectarian violence was part of the fabric of everyday life.

We were surrounded by sectarian violence and hatred. That is something that marks you. I saw people that were willing to kill other people, who were willing to destroy buildings, who were willing to strike fear into each other’s hearts and why were they doing this, they were doing this for tribal reasons. Click here for videoclip

Angry Marks
Conte crayon
36 x 58 cm
1977

Bomb Victim
Conte crayon, ink
55 x 54 cm
1977

You, your whole reality is shaking because you don’t know if you’re going to survive and you don’t know what’s going on all, you know is everything around you is in question and you feel incredible anger at the same time that anyone has the power to make people feel that vulnerable.

I always want to see what we don’t see, hear what’s not heard, I want to go beyond what seems to be the surface. I think that’s because as a child I observed the danger of ignorance, that people could die because of ignorance. Click here for videoclip