Michele Horrigan

b. 1978, Ireland

My artworks frequently interrogate notions of environment and landscape. I aim to set up a kind of theatrical relationship to my subjects that probe and locate specific circumstances and values of representation. Nature Obscured by Factory / Factory Obscured by Fog investigates the social and environmental impacts of the Aughinish Alumina factory. This refinery is situated on Aughinish Island on the south side of the Shannon estuary, between Askeaton and Foynes, twenty miles downstream from Limerick city. Opened in 1983, it produces 1.8 million tonnes of alumina yearly, making it the largest factory of its kind in Europe.

Extracts from newspapers and media reports are displayed on a television monitor to tell of the debate surrounding the deaths of agricultural livestock, toxic deposits in the soil, and harmful sulphur emissions, all attributed by local farmers to the factory’s activities. A projected video shows wildlife in the locale, in a buffer zone around the factory’s perimeter, where horses quietly graze, birds greet the dawn, and ducks swim on the water in the shadow of the factory. A photograph presents a view of the factory, with a morning fog obscuring any sign of industrialisation. This hazily atmospheric view points at the further complexities at the site between nature and industry, economy and environment.

(Text: reading the city catalogue, 2009)