The Citizen
2021
HD video with stereo audio
Duration: 3:28 mins 

The Citizen was made in response to a text selected by the Embassy of Ireland, Berlin, for their online exhibition 'Ulysses Expanded'. The work updates the public house situation where Leopold Bloom encounters the Citizen in James Joyce’s Ulysses, presenting instead the contemporary space of the smartphone, where exchange on political and social issues most regualry now take place. It also responds to Joyce's characterisation of the Citizen and to the mythic archetype of the Cyclops. As the unseen protagonist progresses first through a half-blurred social media landscape, and then through fragmented video images of recent social unrest, the hand gestures seem stilted and out of sync with the phones activity: it is unclear whether it is the protagonist's hand or the device's singular large 'eye' that are leading this procession.

Performance, camera & editing: Ciarán Walsh
Voiceover: Turlach O’Broin