Violent Impression

Abstract

The purpose of this text is to examine the cyclical methodologies of fieldwork, deep mapping and printmaking employed to investigate the changing land use of the Slieve Aughty Mountains, located in the west of Ireland. Landscapes subjected to extractivism bear the physical impact of accelerated carving on the Earth’s surface, leaving visible traces of activity. Without the overt implication of a trace, such as witnessed in extracted landscapes, how can slow violence be recognised by the print artist? What strategies can be applied by the print artist to interpret landscapes affected by environmental change but absent of spectacle? This enquiry seeks to investigate the porosity of slow violence as it reverberates across landscapes, boundaries and bodies. Through a combined method of fieldwork and studio practice, the work attempts to map and connect traces of slow violence to narratives of displacement and disruption within the Slieve Aughty landscape.

Keywords

• anthropocene
• deep mapping
• fieldwork
• slow violence
• temporal