Upside-down Mountains is an artwork situated in the foyer of the Northside Civic Centre, Coolock, Dublin, installed in 2003. Consisting of two landscapes, one in blue neon and the other painted on the wall. The landscapes are based on drawings of Connemara by George Petrie (1790-1866); engravings of his work were used to illustrate guidebooks to Ireland published in the 1820s, when tourism first became a feature of Irish life and economy. Some of Petrie's drawings have been turned upside-down, transforming them into reflections and suggestive of valleys, while the blue light of the neon animates the wall painting. This work explores abstraction and representation, past and present, questioning the development of tourism industries in Ireland.
Upside-down Mountains was also part of a collaboration with Peter Murray and was exhibited as an installation in the Research and Process room at the Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, for the 'George Petrie' exhibition in 2004. The installation consisted of a painted mural, video, photographs, reproductions of prints, photocopied research documents and an interactive area. The video and photographs follow a revisiting of the sites in Connemara that the artist had made drawings of in the 19th century.
Also see videos In Search of Petrie 2004