Ode creates a portrait of neighbouring midland towns, through the recollections of a family split by divorce between the two regions. The age-old rivalry of the towns mimic this new tension, remembrances of by-gone days highlighting the fluxuating structure of the modern day family. The syntax is irregular and poetic like the ramblings of a dream, as memories spanning the generations interweave to create a poignant story of community and how the decline of local industries has impacted on this institution. Vast shoots of landscapes allow the narrative to develop an unforced voice with a Proustain quality.

Joyful self-hate in the recent snow.

Joyful self-hate in the recent snow.

Made over six years in the hotels of six different countries, Hotel Diaries is a series of video recordings which relate personal experiences to the current conflicts in the Middle East. In these works, which play upon chance and co-incidence, the hotel room is employed as a 'found' film set, where the architecture, furnishing and decoration become the means by which the filmmaker's small adventures are linked to major world events. Works in the series include Frozen War (Ireland, 2001), Museum Piece (Germany, 2004), Throwing Stones (Switzerland, 2004), B & B (England, 2005), Pyramids/Skunk (The Netherlands 2006/7), Dirty Pictures (Palestine 2007) and Six Years Later (Ireland 2007).

Shot with a wireless miniature camera, this film contrasts the intended use of the CCTV technology (the monitoring of space) with its creative re-purposing (the production of ‘expressive' shots). The surveillance of the artist in dehumanising overhead shots is juxtaposed with the artist's appropriation of the technology to create an abstract microscopic landscape. The overhead gaze of the CCTV camera obscures the signs of the artist's subjectivity (by concealing his face), and objectifies him as a result; the stop motion makes him robotic. In contrast, the expressionistic imagery supposedly embodies his personal vision. Of course, the distinction between the two types of footage becomes complicated through the film. The CCTV material has formal or aesthetic qualities of its own, and may be as expressive of the claustrophobia and isolation of the character as the microscopic imagery. The work contrasts the banality of everyday activity and the constraint of domestic space with the imaginative possibilities of creativity. The body of the protagonist, enclosed by furniture and limited to a few repetitive functional gestures in the CCTV footage, is able to transcend this physical state with the camera, which seems able to go anywhere and shoot at any angle.