Tom Fitzgerald
b. 1939, Ireland
Life is mysterious. In my work I attempt to address the mystery in oblique, non-literal and, occasionally, humorous ways. GazaParadiso is a drawing and text installation created in response to the Israeli invasion of Gaza in 2009. The drawings and texts are inscribed on fragments of plastic collected on a beach in Co Clare. The drawings are taken from Sandro Botticelli’s illustrations for Dante’s Paradiso, while the texts are taken from journalists’ accounts of the effects of the invasion on Palestinian civilians.
The installation is an attempt to highlight the disparity between man’s aspirations and the reality of his actions. For me, the matching of image and text with the plastic fragments is a way of providing a mirror for the damaged and broken lives of innocent Palestinian people.
(Text: e v+ a – matters catalogue, 2010)
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