Roderick Buchanan

21st November 2008 – 31st January 2009

For this first major display of his work in Ireland, Buchanan will be exhibiting recent artwork which references sectarianism as manifested in history, culture and society.

Much of the content for the show is drawn from ‘Histrionics’, which was commissioned by the Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow Museums in 2007 as part of its social justice programme Blind Faith: Contemporary art and human rights, exploring the themes of identity, territorialism and nation. The artworks are personal responses to these issues, locating themselves within Buchanan’s family history of ‘mixed marriages’; his love of football- placing him in direct contact with the rivalry between Rangers and Celtic; the dominance identity has played in his art practice- evident in his film ‘I Am Here’, which documents nationalist and loyalist band-practice sessions and his growing interest in the life of Thomas Muir, a political activist after whom Buchanan’s secondary school was named. These personal starting points have enabled a body of work to be created that, whilst sitting within a contemporary art context, allows for engagement across social and religious boundaries