HUMAN SHEEP

Photograph work for Irish Exhibition of Living Art and book publication.

December 1982

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The photographs depict a previous iteration of the installation of the same name – a human skeleton with a sheep’s skull sits on a chair, legs crossed at the knee. Imposed over the bottom half of the images are the words ‘HUMAN SHEEP’. The skeletons are bracketed by the words ‘NOTHING – ONE’, ‘ONE – NOTHING’, and at knee level we read: SLAVE OF… SECTARIANISM, RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY, DIVISIVE POLITICS, AND HIM/HER ‘SELF’. One image is marked ‘+’, the other, ‘o’.

‘Sharing ideas with the previous installation of the same name, this exhibition […] emphasises a negative role of religion as an oppressive mechanism, and the lack of will on the part of individuals to assume personal responsibility for their actions.’

Text from ‘Alastair MacLennan: Is No’, ed. Stephen Snoddy, 1988.