Motels and Mineral Surfaces
Solo exhibition: The NAG, Dublin, 2011
Motels and Mineral Surfaces charts Aoibheann Greenan’s imagined experience of visiting the Grand Canyon Skywalk, using only the tour-package information as her guide. Discrepancies between the ‘real’ place and the artist’s fantastical depictions implicate her as the author and cultural voyeur. Greenan’s fetishistic interpretations of the local Hualapai tribe’s crafted merchandise- hackneyed pan-Indian constructs borne out of pop-cultural references- serve as sign of an imaginary other. On close inspection they bear a utilitarian status through their incorporation of mass-produced commodity items. The artist’s deliberate cultural misappropriations point to the ways that online information can distort our understanding and perception of the world.