I am a research-based artist and teacher whose work explores the relationship between colonialism, patriarchal structures, and environmental degradation. Through a series of eight miniature photobooks, I endeavoured to understand the desire to control land and woman. My work considers similarities between the Irish landscape and the female body, both vulnerable to masculine, imperialist advancements. ‘is tírdhreach í’, translated from Irish to mean ‘she is a landscape’, begins by questioning why colonised lands are considered feminine. To do this, I present the bog as a feminine entity and a site of colonial tension, its perceived under-utilisation rendered it as virgin, therefore justifying British intervention. Not only do I present the land as feminised, but I suggest that the sexualised female body is contained within the Irish landscape. While colonial rule enforced ideals of female domesticity, the control and mapping of the female body, much like the Irish landscape itself, prevailed in post-colonial Ireland. Furthermore, by proposing landscape as a visual construct fabricated by man, I suggest that nature and woman are reduced to objects of observation. Through extensive research and film photography, I have developed a critique of the hegemonic masculine gaze one looks at the landscape through, theorising that it acts as a catalyst for environmental degradation. The smallness of these books mirrors societal perceptions of femininity, viewed through a magnifying glass to echo the intimate gaze directed at the female body.
