Sectarian Murder series (1988)
Sectarian Murder revisited the sites of Sectarian attacks during the 1970’s close to where the artist Paul Seawright grew up in Belfast. The texts accompanying each photograph are from newspaper reports at the time and document the murders of innocent civilians, killed for their perceived religion. Reference to Protestant or Catholic background was removed from the text.
This work was purchased for the Golden Thread Gallery Collection thanks to support from the Ampersand Foundation.
Paul Seawright was born in Belfast 1965 and is currently Professor of Photography and Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of Ulster. His photographs have been exhibited worldwide and are held many museum collections including The Tate, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, International Centre of Photography New York and the Irish Museum of Modern Art.
Seawright is best known for his alternative visual analysis of locations and subjects dominated by mainstream media. His works have looked at the RUC and policing, sectarianism, the Orange Order, protestant bonfires, defensive architecture, peace lines and the psychology of urban space in ways that are unfamiliar. His photographs are devoid of obvious drama but loaded with implicit tension. In 2002 he was commissioned by the Imperial War Museum London to respond to the war in Afghanistan and his photographs of battle-sites and minefields have subsequently been exhibited worldwide.
The iconic Sectarian Murder series is one of his earlier works, and has been exhibited in more than 20 countries, including at Tate Britain, Planet Parr in Munich and Paris, The Troubles Archive OBG Belfast, the British Council Collection exhibition at London Whitechapel Gallery. The series was part of a major exhibition of Seawright’s work entitled ‘Anxious Landscape’ here at the Golden Thread Gallery in 2008.
Selected images from Sectarian Murder series by Paul Seawright
Selected images from Sectarian Murder series by Paul Seawright
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