Space to Love Space to Shop

I was always brought up to believe that I was born into a Republic, now I realise that I live in an economy. Theo Dorgan

With the pace of economic growth in Ireland the ‘rolling out’ of motorway construction has begun to fundamentally transform our understanding and relationship to this island. Motorways in theory symbolise some of the key aspects of modernity. They were constructed to provide a free flow of commodities and people to and around the centres of wealth creation. However the realisation that the globe has reached its peak in oil extraction, coinciding with a better understanding of man made climate change, has transformed these roads into emblems of the modern world’s arrogant folly.

Motorways glide over, through and under any previous landscape; in effect they seek to deny this previous reality. My response to the rapid pace of change was to walk in and around the entire length of the M50, the two lane orbital motorway, to situate this aspect of a post-industrial society back into a particular place and time.

Throughout my walks I have discovered how difficult it is to negotiate one’s way through these places on foot. While it is illegal and quite dangerous to walk along the motorway, the surrounding areas have been constructed, in what can seem at times, in opposition to the human. While many thousands of people live and work along the M50, it is rare to pass through an area that seems inhabited, even though they are a mixture of residential, business and transient communities. The walk was therefore a deliberate attempt to slow down amongst the increasingly hectic pace of contemporary society as a means to encourage the viewer of these images to do the same.

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