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Lighthouse represents things near and far away, Donovan Wylie's camera crosses channels that flicker between barriers and invitations. Following the June 2016 referendum on the United Kingdom leaving the European Union, Wylie began to photograph distant lighthouses on key procedural dates; exploring ideas of family and fractured relationships to understand the United Kingdom's current state, and eloquently contemplating how isolation and identity shape its sense of self. Glimpsed from the opposing coastlines of France, Northern Ireland and Great Britain, the afterglow of the distant lighthouses became a way to process the tensions and complexities of identity and insularity, loneliness and love.
About the author
Born in 1971, Donovan Wylie is a photographer and filmmaker based in his native Belfast. Exploring alternative strategies for the representation of conflict, Wylie combines conceptual and typological approaches, and asks us to consider the role of photography within the contexts of preservation, memory and history. Wylie is Professor of Photography at Ulster University, and his work is held in numerous public collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven; and the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin. Wylie’s books with Steidl include Maze (2009), Outposts (2011), North Warning System (2014) and Housing Plans for the Future (2018).
Summary
Lighthouse represents things near and far away, Donovan Wylie’s camera crosses channels that flicker between barriers and invitations. Following the June 2016 referendum on the United Kingdom leaving the European Union, Wylie began to photograph distant lighthouses on key procedural dates; exploring ideas of family and fractured relationships to understand the United Kingdom’s current state, and eloquently contemplating how isolation and identity shape its sense of self. Glimpsed from the opposing coastlines of France, Northern Ireland and Great Britain, the afterglow of the distant lighthouses became a way to process the tensions and complexities of identity and insularity, loneliness and love.
