The collection begins with Walter W. Russell's (1867-1949) A Country Lane, A scene one sees a lot if you wander off the mains roads in the Lee Valley. You will find tranquillity and that sense of getting away from the busy world. Adjacent, you view an image of three figures fishing on the banks of a river not unlike the River Lee The work is entitled Landscape with Figures.

Our interaction with the natural environment is important. All of the biographies of Dripsey people over the last number of weeks talk about the intersection of people and the land, from the stone row to the holy well to the woollen mills. Through a series of short film snippets, Rachel Reupke's work Infrastructure also focuses on the human relationship with the land, our attempts to organise and structure the natural. In her DVD, you view a mountainous landscape with a complex and highly evolved transport network running through it.

James Ireland's two mixed media works point the viewer to our reconstruction of our experiences of nature, how nature and landscape is commonly packaged and framed in advertising and conventional depiction. Nina Canell through a DVD entitled We Lost Wind recalls nature and the forgotten legends around that relationship. Clodagh Emoe's art piece entitled Point of no Return adds to that by focusing on mankind's persistent attempts to chart the invisible and the unattainable.

Richard Walker provides two very entertaining DVD installations entitled Awaiting Imagery and Successive Inconceivable Events respectively. Richard attempts to create a dialogue with the natural landscape. He attempts to characterise, personalise and even romance it. In his second DVD installation, he is viewed sitting on the side of the mountain having a discussion with the land. He proceeds to question the landscape like a lover. He articulates his feelings when faced with the unapproachable distance of the nature around him and its lack of acknowledgement for his own presence.

Sven Johne's work A Walk in Lusatia, through infrared photography, explores the way in which stories remain hidden in the landscape, which once revealed, can reconstruct the landscape we ordinarily see before us. Johan Thurfjell through his two works Patagonia (mixed material) and Yesterday, today, tomorrow (print/ collage) discusses how landscapes and places are traversed with written language and personal memories. How many of us collect the Lonely Planet Guides or their equivalent or take photos of landscapes when we are on holidays. All of us have a fascination with the 'different' and recording our experiences.

David Claerbout's work attempts to re-animate the past. He takes a picture of the village Ruurlo, Netherlands from 1910 and through technology re-animates or gets the leaves moving on a tree in the picture. One can see his interest in nostalgia and ideas of "good old times" but he tries to open the past landscape up the present. Perhaps that is a good way to conclude the above ramblings. The textures of the landscapes we see whether it be in the Lee Valley or elsewhere are significant and vibrant in our lives. The land can be interpreted in different ways and that makes for great personal and collective ways of life and the creation of varied and interesting heritages.

To be continued…

Beyond the Country – Perspectives of the Land in Historic and Contemporary Art, Lewis Glucksman Gallery, University College Cork, current to 3 February 2008, www.glucksman.org.

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