2nd may - 9th may 2004

niall MACDONALD [INR]

Following research into a range of domestic bomb shelters which were designed during the nineteen eighties, MACDONALD has built a number of structures whose form and presentation reflect something of the anxiety and absurdity of the ideological struggle between the personal and political.

The illustrated plans, which were commissioned and circulated by the Ministry of Defence in 1980, condense the escalating pressures of the end of the cold war into 6ft x 4ft structures. Pieced together from doors, carpets, wardrobes and bin-liners, each shelter constitutes an act of Do-it-Yourself defence.

But these are desperately inadequate structures built to protect the occupant against the image of the A- bomb. A political placebo, an empty gesture of assurance: "your eyes will not boil, your bodies will not burn"

MACDONALD's efforts are rusty and outdated, determined but inefficient. Individually, they reference the familiar Anderson Shelter as well as the confessional booth and confinement unit. As a community in the [vsf], they form a shantytown of dilapidated confidence.

niall MACDONALD's practise allows him to work between different structures and methods of information. He is interested in discouse, description, the personal and the political. Developing objects, interventions and texts, he attempts to iniate dialogue through a process of deconstruction.

MACDONALD has been living and working in Glasgow for six years. After graduating with a Masters in Art in 2003 he has continued to work on a range of individual and collaborative projects and is a member of the artists' group Something Haptic.

niall MACDONALD can be contacted on niall_a_macdonald@hotmail.com