Terrain

Martin Healy’s works examine the conflict between scientifically proven theory and belief systems to create narratives that are a synthesis of fact, fiction and mythology.
The Terrain series, showing in the RHA Foyer, forms part of an ongoing body of photographs that explore our contested relationship with the natural world by examining the cultural constructs used to shape our perception of ‘nature’. Each image is suffused with an uneasy stillness that slowly discloses the artifice of the surrounding environment and reveals the plants as enclosed specimens – substitutes for the real, designed to fulfil our desire for an experience with nature.
From gardens to zoos we create artificial environments hewn from the raw materials of the ‘natural world’ which are then reshaped and altered to depict a passive image of nature. These efforts to instrumentalise ‘nature’ – to recast it in a familiar pictorial language – underlines our desire for an idealised image that keeps the reality of the natural world at a distance.
Special thanks to The National Botanic Gardens and The Office of Public Works.
 
 
 
 
Image: Martin Healy, Terrain I, 2015, Archival pigment print, 80 x 100cm, Image courtesy of the artist.