Michael John Whelan
Video Installation
Film
Photography
Objects
Paper & Sound
Info
News
Echoes of evaporation
and submergence

1991
And they did live by watchfires
Nocturne
Untitled
Darkness had no need
These last breaths
The time of cruel wonders
was not yet over

In the black dark for good
Carapace
That we were to wait
Like force and matter
Lupus
20 Vertices, 30 Edges
and 160 Diagonals

Dune
Transit of Venus
Over the echoing gateway
Stars/Star
Shadowplay
Archway (diptych)
Echoes of evaporation and submergence
2023-ongoing, gelatin silver print
frame treated with seawater
50 x 40cm
(1/6) Next




This geographically ambitious project navigates different locations on and under the seas surrounding Ireland, investigating controversial and traumatising events from Irish history. Through in-depth research into personal testimonies, various locations are photographed using a large format camera and printed traditionally onto silver gelatin paper. The testimonies are interpreted anew, disseminating the stories that are intrinsically connected to the Irish landscape. Subjects include areas of exceptionally high radioactivity, making the Irish Sea the most radioactive sea in the world; former pre-repeal abortion routes to the UK; and the sinking site of the RMS Lusitania, which resulted in 1,198 deaths. After each photograph is taken, a sample of sea water is collected from the location and is repeatedly brushed into the Irish oak frame, permanently permeating the wood with salt crystals. The framed photographs are installed so that they touch one another, allowing the molecular dynamics of the salt crystals to connect and move between the different woods, and by extension, the different locations. The salt acts as an organic factor of commonality, bonding these otherwise disparate locations in a shared trauma and offering the potential for healing.