I want to believe
13 Jul - 26 Aug 2007

Martin Healy’s output over the past five years has formed a sort of artistic anthropology. He locks into popular myths asking why in such a rational age that we evoke manifestations of the primitive and superstitious. With this exhibition I want to believe the RHA continues its’ commitment to presenting artists who were introduced through the Eurojet Futures exhibition. Healy will exhibit two video installations, Skywatcher and Genesis 28:12 along with a series of photographic works, in Gallery I.

Skywatcher consists of an interview with a man who discusses the possibility that he may have encountered UFO’s in Warmintster, UK during the 1970’s. As Healy explains in an interview with Patrick T Murphy, “Warminster is local, more folklore than science fiction. And I am trying to capture its particular atmosphere and present it in my work. I am showing its dynamic but I am not trying to analyse it or investigate it, just to communicate it without prejudice”.

Genesis 28:12 , where a band have been recorded playing a version of Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven, famous for it’s alleged hidden messages which are audible when the track is played backwards, ‘can be read as an exploration of the relationship between myth and popular culture’, (Joseph R. Wolin, Paul Is Dead, catalogue essay.)

I want to believe will be Healy’s first major museum solo exhibition and will give the opportunity to survey: ‘How Healy comments on our predisposition to accept the unprovable. His is not a moral stance but one of reportage leaving us to speculate on why such a reflex exists in our psyche at all’, comments Patrick T. Murphy.

Credits: Installation Photography Liam O’Callaghan