Curated by Brenda McParland

Unplaceable places, territorial ambiguities: Such are the stuff of Willie Doherty’s photographs and videos. The interest may to some degree be local: Doherty comes from Derry, in Northern Ireland, and in Ireland questions of whom the land belongs to, and who belong to the land, have been bitterly fought over. The fact that many Irish towns have two names, one English, one Gaelic, may have contributed to Doherty’s sense of not only spatial but linguistic indeterminacy. The mood of his work is subtle unsettlement: It often suggests some past violence, recent or old, to which we can unravel clues—but never completely. It is almost shocking that this exhibition, organized by IMMA’s Brenda McParland, is Doherty’s first major museum show in Ireland.

— David Frankel