Sue Morris was born in England and is a graduate of the Royal College of Art, London. Since the early nineties she has lived in Ireland, most recently in Derry, Northern Ireland. Her multidisciplinary practice utilizes drawing, text, printmaking, film, photography, sound and installation. Her work explores notions of the known and the unknown, particularly around re-imagined and alternative histories.
Morris’ work at Fort Dunree is a site-responsive installation located in one of the pillboxes, or lookout posts, perched on the headland looking out to the Atlantic. Their function was to defend the fort against attack or invasion and would have housed soldiers and artillery.
The work is a gentle intervention; its intent is to dis-arm or neutralize the building of its original usage and make it a space of contemplation: transparent layers, with suggestions of landscape, pull the viewer into and through the space, towards the sea.
The military garrison at Dunree has, over the decades, been dissolving back into the landscape as it is slowly reclaimed by nature. The site has morphed from a military base to a tourist attraction – a place of natural beauty where people come to walk, picnic, maybe visit the café, museum or art gallery.
Morris’ installation, working with the architecture and original usage of the pillbox, alongside its contemporaneously graffitied walls, connects the past to the present, and provides a framework to reflect upon an alternative history of Fort Dunree.
