Much of Doherty’s work has been shaped by his experiences growing up in a society deeply divided by political and religious conflict and of being forced to deal with feelings of oppression and fear. His work explores the distortions that inevitably occur in the representation of reality. Many of Doherty’s photographs, video and film installations can be read as comments on the multiplicity of meanings hidden beneath the supposed objectivity of an image. Ancient Ground was filmed in the peat bogs of County Donegal. In this film, the landscape is scarred by absence rather than presence. Bogs, positioned on the margins of society, have long served as sites for the disposal of bodies and the concealment of crime. Here, elusive traces of destruction and the memories of human trauma remain embedded in the landscape.
HD video, 8 mins, edition 3/3.
Permanent loan to Hugh Lane Gallery. Collection Irish Museum of Modern Art, Heritage Gift, 2014
Still from ‘Ancient Ground’ (2011) by Willie Doherty.
Still from ‘Ancient Ground’ (2011) by Willie Doherty.
