Graham Parker and Grace Weir
Sight Unseen (2005), stills
32 minute HD Video commissioned by Breaking Ground, Dublin, Ireland via European Social Fund
Editioned DVD featuring essay by Mark Orange



Sight Unseen was a collaboration with Irish artist Grace Weir made in response to a commission to mark the transformation of the
built environment of Ballymun - a housing project in Dublin, Ireland. Ballymun was in the process of an extensive reconstruction
that involved the demolition of its once notorious residential tower blocks - whose very visible presence in the landscape had served
as a reminder of previous moments of economic and social failure. The current plan to remodel the estate around low-level housing will
involve the removal of the negatively charged iconography of the towers on the principal route to the city's expanding airport - a tacitly
acknowledged benefit for the authorities.
Aware of this, the artists chose to invert the traditional gaze upon the towers and instead film only outwards from the windows of the
tower - with an accompanying subtitle commentary provided by the resident of whatever apartment was being filmed from at that moment.
The residents were interviewed as the footage was captured and asked for certain details about the relative position of their apartment
to the ground, visible nearby locations and landmarks etc, as well as prompted to provide subjective thoughts and memories on their
view and the sightlines and connections that would soon be lost forever.