Declan Clarke | ‘Mine Are Of Trouble’ | 2006 | Single channel DVD projection | 15mins 43secs

Since the Arts Council collection was established in the early 1960s there has been a huge growth in the number of artists using the camera to create photographs and make moving image artworks. At this time when we are all looking at an abundance of images online, we wanted to highlight some key works in the collection. There are over 100 lens-based works in the collection, and we’ve selected 14 works that are maybe not as familiar to our audiences. Works in the exhibition were created between 1987 and 2013. 

Here, Declan Clarke, whose work is showcased under the ‘Four Decades of the Lens’ theme, tells us more about the featured artwork and what it means to have his artwork as part of the Arts Council collection. Explore this and more from the Arts Council collection at instagram.com/artscouncilireland/

The film Mine Are of Trouble was in development for a couple of years. It emerged from a series of shorter films I made between 2003 and 2005. These had taken on an ‘essay film’ quality, while integrating an autobiographical aspect. The personal stories were a means to counter balance the socio political context, and as such functioned more as a narrative device rather than a means of personal revelation. In essence, the film is about the changing political history of a place, in this instance the city of Berlin in Germany. I used the life and political work of the revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg through which to relay this, and then reflected on how I had become acquainted with her legacy.

The film proved popular and was exhibited widely upon completion. Since then, while my work, and in particular my film work, has evolved away from this approach to filmmaking, I have returned to this style of film a number of times. In 2015 I made Group Portrait with Explosives, that looked at a little known connection between the former country of Czechoslovakia and the region of South Armagh in Northern Ireland. This film also combined a political narrative with a personal aspect, which was a sort of development of themes and style of Mine Are of Trouble. My most recent film, Saturn and Beyond, completed in February just prior to the COVID 19 lockdown, is a further contribution to this strand of the work, and though not thematically political like its predecessors, it continues and expands this oeuvre of filmmaking within my practice.

—Declan Clarke

Since 1962, the Arts Council has been buying art from working artists. The Collection that evolved tells the story of modern and contemporary Irish visual art in a unique and fascinating way. Today the Collection continues to grow and its more than 1,100 paintings, sculptures and other works are on display in public spaces all over Ireland for people to experience and enjoy first hand. You can find out more at: www.artscouncil.emuseum.com