Martin Seeds - Assembly

‘Assembly’ is a body of work set in the Stormont Estate, the home of the Northern Ireland Assembly. The work uses the power of photography to generate allegory - letting the plants, trees and foliage deliver a message from the grounds surrounding the Northern Ireland parliament building about the struggles embedded in a fragile political landscape.

‘Assembly’ suggests the importance of the grounds as a common material space beyond culture in which difference and likeness are both articulated and intertwined in a natural world outside of the political chamber. View Assembly text

Assembly i. Architectural plans of the Northern Ireland Parliament building at Stormont.
Giclée. Crown Copyright, used with permission.

Assembly parts v, iv, and iii.
Installation at University of Brighton Gallery, Brighton, UK 2016

Assembly iv. 36 b&w contact prints of plant fragments from the Stormont Estate.
7.6x5 cms on 30 x 24 cms paper, silver gelatin fibre based hand print.

Assembly v. Winter tree canopy in blood red.
101 x 76 cms, c-type, with matching red artist frame.
Installation at University of Brighton Gallery, Brighton, UK 2016

Assembly vi. 30 pairs of landscape photographs made in the grounds of the Stormont Estate.
Site specific video installation. 1080p HD, no sound.
Installed at The Regency Town House, Brighton, as part of Brighton Photo Fringe, 2016.

Assembly vi. 30 pairs of photographs made in the grounds of the Stormont Estate.
55.6 x 40.6 cms, Giclée.
Installation at Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris 2017

Assembly v. 101 x 76 cms, c-type, with matching red artist frame.
3 pairs of photographs from Assembly vi. 40.6 x30 cms, Giclée.
Installation at Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris, France 2017

Assembly iii. Fragments of fossilized material in the Portland stone façade of the Parliament building.
101 x 76cms, Giclée, with white artist frame.
Installation at University of Brighton Gallery, Brighton, UK 2016

Assembly i. Architectural plans of the Northern Ireland Parliament building at Stormont.
Giclée. Crown Copyright, used with permission

Assembly vi. 55.6 x 40.6 cms and 40.6 x30 cms, Giclée
Installation at University of Brighton Gallery, Brighton, UK 2016.

Assembly vi. 40.6 x30 cms, Giclée.
Installation at Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris 2017

Assembly v. 101 x 76 cms, c-type, with red artist frame.
Assembly vi. 40.6 x30 cms and 55.6 x 40.6 cms. Giclée
Assembly iv grid of 36 contact prints of plant fragments. 7.6x5 cms on 30 x 24 cms paper, silver gelatin fibre based hand prints
Installation at Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris 2017

Addendum: Martin Seeds July 2018.

When I started making this work in late 2015 there was an optimism about the future of the Assembly. Perhaps this was due to the Fresh Start Agreement in November that year that re-energised the political landscape. However a few months after this work was finished and exhibited in 2016 the Northern Ireland Assembly collapsed.

Initially the financial mishandling of an environmental heating scheme was the source of the impasse between the two main political parties. In a short period of time old tribal grievances emerged and became woven into arguments between the parties about who was responsible. The disagreements have been so deep that the viability of the Good Friday Agreement as a framework for governance is being questioned.

In 2018 the twenty year anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement passed uneventfully and the Assembly borne from it was silent and empty. The prospect of a future Assembly has been twisted by and into the outcome of BREXIT.