Friends, Walks, Hills, Invisible Lines & Belfast Lough, 1975-77
Booklet documenting 5 outdoor projects concerning the environs of Belfast Lough
During my final year at the College of Art and Design in Belfast, I worked on a number of projects exploring geographical and social aspects of the Belfast and Carrickfergus area, where I grew up. This set of projects took me out of the art school building and into the streets, the countryside, and peoples' homes:
Friend Map: I visited everyone in the area who was a friend or relation, photographed them in their homes and placed the photographs on a map in the appropriate location.
Hilltop Line: On a specific date at a specific time, 5 people standing on 5 hilltops along the edge of Belfast Lough flashed a signal in sequence to the person on the adjacent hill by reflecting the suns rays with a 12" square mirror.
Hilltop Triangle: A conceptual triangle was created between 3 prominent geographical locations when a DJ on Radio Downtown made a prearranged announcement and played a breakfast time request for 3 people listening in from each location with transistor radios (broadcast excerpt above).
Circuit: A circumnavigation of the Belfast Lough area within a single day, which involved walking 30 miles and rowing 7 miles. I began with a rucksack containing 24 stones. The stones were deposited one by one at approximately equal intervals, representing the passing of 24 years of my life.
I produced the booklet Friends, Walks, Hills, Invisible Lines and Belfast Lough to document these projects. All of the people in the Friend Map received a copy of the booklet and the rest were available for free at my final B.A. Degree Show in June 1977.