Image provided courtesy of the artist and Kerlin Gallery.

Established in 1988, the Kerlin Gallery is a hidden gem in Dublin’s art scene.  On the second floor of their Anne’s Lane building, I recently encountered a haunting and emotive collection of photographs depicting the aftermath of human ecological intervention and conflict.

The darkness of the photos in contrast to the bright room drowned out the busyness of the room occupied by those who looked like established photographers and regulars of the art world. Bare walls and a white, well-lit, minimal space allowed for me to be engulfed by the storied world of the photographs. This immediately highlighted the emotional quality in Doherty’s work.

IS AND IS NOT, celebrates the tension between human interactions and the emotions  held in the materials and spaces that make them. This exhibition spans many unspecified locations, not commenting on the particular happenings in each location. Instead it is an expansive rumination on the residue of all things in the places we once inhabited. An exploration into the ‘poetry’ of dereliction.

The artist himself, Willie Doherty, made his way around the exhibition, eager to greet visitors. Born in Derry in Northern Ireland, Doherty has been a professional artist for forty years. Employing the mediums of photography and video, most of his work  is rooted in his home city and explores themes of human conflict and the passage of time. Growing up during The Troubles and witnessing Bloody Sunday as a child had a big impact on him, influencing much of his art as he grew up. He has gone on to host countless successful exhibitions and win many prestigious awards such as the Turner Award in 1994 and 2003. 

Now, Doherty employs once more his forensic approach and long developed skill in black and white analogue photography, maintaining the engaging gaze characteristic of his work.  The slow and diligent process of analogue photography translates to the slow observation of this exhibition encouraged by its curation, as does the intensity with which Doherty revisited his subject matter throughout his work. The environment instils a feeling of hostility and isolation that gradually grows familiar.

 IS AND IS NOT captures scenes of nature and urban landscapes around Derry. The stark, monochromatic nature of the photographs allow for the textures of the trees, bricks and wildflowers to be placed at the forefront. I was struck by the lack of movement in his work. These are photographs devoid of people, highlighting a feeling of abandonment, conflict, and neglect of our home by humans.

These pieces take us on a journey through a range of abandoned worlds. Grassy woodlands, small towns, and graffitied doors articulate the impact we have on the places in which we reside. The exhibition contains fourteen pieces, intuitively and meticulously curated to ineffably mirror a sprawling quiet evening or a meditatively long sentence. This cohesive collection invites the visitor into a different realm of contemplation.

Beginning at Morning, I fell into a hazy reminiscence of the seaside. The main wall then holds eight core pieces, grouped by tone and theme. Airless and Motionless starkly reference marks left by human beings. Following this were four darker and subtler pieces alternating between industrial and woodland settings,  illustrating the scope of the artist’s observation of this theme.

Long Shadow 2022 stood out to me. The walls of an alley covered in graffiti, the ground carpeted in moss, showing signs of neglect and carelessness.

Hanging solitarily on the wall facing Morning, Derry 30th January 2022 acts as a palette refresher. The descriptive title is the only one in which the location is specified, and so I felt reminded of reality as we enter into the last leg of the trancelike experience.

In Elsewhere 2022 a car is being  submerged into a forest as the tree branches and wildflowers slowly reclaim it. The static feel invited me to carefully observe the setting and be thoughtful of the eventual erasure of all things through time.

Disruption 2022 presented me with a scene of an unkempt forest, with old, barbed wire hanging from the trees and a discarded boat at the centre. I was particularly haunted by the dark shadows of the deep woods behind in the back.

Midnight, the only diptych, concludes the exhibition. A delicate shot of a dilapidated building and broken awning is paired with an uphill shot of an unfocused dog, staring down the artist and forcing us as viewers to reflect on our role in this whole experiential transaction before we leave – the first sign of new life.

Doherty’s work exposes hidden landscapes that conceal a troubled past. He explores the historical truth, exposing the aftermath of brutality and shame, showcasing what is and what is not.

IS AND IS NOT showed in the Kerlin Gallery from 15 October to 19 November 2022. Image provided courtesy of the artist and Kerlin Gallery.