great irish landscapes

John Gerrard

The starting point for this body of work was the Bungalow Bliss design manual. From there I took ten standard window dimensions to use as proportional templates. All were characterized by their horizontal profile and multitude of panes. The resulting works, which were originally part of a show entitled 18 Great Irish Landscapes, play with the notion that a window onto the landscape renders that vista a possession and a commodity. It was important that the rural landscapes I sought out were those untouched� by built development, in that their very unspoilt state was in itself valuable. Through the use of a shadow box frame these works give a sculptural illusion of depth (the photographs were cut up and individually mounted on aluminium sheets half an inch from the backing board). Then there is a further picture frame before the illusory window, creating two layers of artifice. In being for sale, these vistas could also be possessed, a little piece of the Irish landscape, frozen in time, unlike the actual landscapes from which I derived them.

John Gerrard is an artist.
http://www.cs.tcd.ie/John.Gerrard//webpage/irish/irishlandscapes.htm