IRHANN (2008)

Gabriel Jones describes his ostensibly imaginary country of Irhann as a series of anti-glorious landscapes. In a region forsaken by man we encounter the remains of nuclear missiles and other weapons. They are as ridiculous now as they once were great and threatening. Inert, overgrown, abandoned – are these actually the killing machines that we assume them to be? Jones’s ambiguity leads the viewer down the garden path. Are we looking at the desolate landscape of a long-forgotten war – an apocalypse that wiped out mankind – or are we simply looking at a cemetery for obsolete civil materiel, booster rockets and satellites, icons of progress? Making use of photographs and video stills, Jones simultaneously suggests both hyper-reality and fantasy. His images transcend time, and lose every sense of threat. What remains is the absurdity.