Unexpected correspondences

THE weighty catalogue for Distant Relations, the exhibition of Irish, Mexican and Chicano art currently at IMMA, has a small, surprising quotation from Dean Swift inside its cover. Speaking of the English attitude to Ireland, Swift says: "As to Ireland, they know little more than they do of Mexico ...

Swift's is an odd juxtaposition, "but one that resonates uncannily with Distant Relations, an exhibition which focuses on some unexpected correspondences between the cultures of Mexico and Ireland. Still more surprising is that such an exhibition, which will be seen in venues as far apart as The Ikon Gallery, Birmingham and the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City, is curated by a British woman. Anyone, however, who suggested that there was something incongruous about Trisha Ziff organising such a show is overlooking the Leeds born curator's biography.

Ziff first became involved with politics in the North of Ireland in the mid 1980s, when she began working with a London based socialist feminist, group which supported protesting prisoners in the North. My real introduction to Irish politics was through the support of the women on the no wash protest in Armagh and my very first trip to the North was on International Women's Day," says Ziff.

Before her visit to the North, Ziff had been working with a London photographic collective, and had been involved in community arts in England for several years, working in various schemes, setting up arts groups and initiatives around London. She also studied Fine Art at Goldsmith College in London. On her initial visit to the North, she met community activists from Derry who invited her to come to set up a "community photography" group.

I had always been very conscious of how photographers tended to come to Ireland, or to the North anyway, to photograph moments of heightened trouble: The Battle of the Bogside, all those kind of things, says Ziff. "They're not there every day, they don't photograph humour, they don't photograph everyday life. And so the world's perception of the North was a very distorted one.

The solution to this problem was to use her skills to set up a facility allowing young Derry people to document their own lives. "This meant that there was not this dependence on the outsider, on the one hand, and of the professional on the other, to be the purveyor of the image," says Ziff.

Her original plan was to stay in Derry for a year, but this quickly stretched into several more, as she became involved with another ambitious media project. With funding from Channel 4, she helped to set up the Derry Film and Video Workshop. Although her community arts track record probably helped to draw the funding towards Derry, she worked on only one project with the group the film Mother Ireland.

IN 1989, Ziff moved to Mexico City. She, her husband - the Spanish born Mexican photographer Pedro Meyer and their one year old son Julio now divide their time between there and Los Angeles.

Meyer is perhaps best known for his photographs of the indigenous peoples of, Mexico, and it was while travelling with the photographer to see the remote home lands of the Mixtec people that the germ of Distant Relations first emerged. The fruit of Meyer's travels into the lands of the Mixtec was a series of photographs some of which were seen recently in Dublin at the Gallery of Photography. What eventually emerged from Ziff's time among these people was Distant Relations.

"When I first went to Mexico I was in the Mixteca region of Oaxaca, which is in the south of the country. It's a highland area which is very, very poor. There is 50 per cent migration," says Ziff. "I went with my husband and I was writing, and all my writing ended up being about Donegal and my experience in Derry. I couldn't work out why, but I was having these very intense images of this experience I had had several years before in Ireland."

Gradually, she began to unravel" this strange experience, to pick out certain parts, not just the topography, of the social and economic life of the area which made her think of Derry. Slowly, the idea emerged of creating an exhibition that would facilitate "a dialogue between two cultures".

What this means, according to Ziff, is that she has isolated some echoes and patterns of similarities" which link two cultures that, superficially at least, appear vastly different. To do this, she says, is not to suggest that one is a replica of the other: "I have never pretended that Mexico and Ireland are the same. What I think is that they have very interesting touching points."

These "touching points", include the loss of an ancient civilisation, the strong position of the Catholic church, the countries' status as post colonial nations, and the subjugation of an indigenous language. But even if certain similarities do emerge from Distant Relations, Ziff's intention for the exhibition was certainly not to offer factual lessons. Rather, she wanted to create something far less didactic - something that suggests ideas rather than teaches the truth.

In curating Distant Relations, Ziff has begun by noticing points of contact between certain Irish and Mexican or Chicago artists. She saw for instance a connection between the work of Tipperary artist Alice Maher and Silvia Gruner who lives and works in Mexico City.

A PAIRING between the work of Belfast born John Kindness and that of Ruben Ortiz Torres, again from Mexico City, underlines the connection between Irish art which looks at the influence of American popular culture on Ireland, and art which examines the impact of white, European culture, in Mexico. Other artists taking part, such as Philip Napier and Derry photographer Willie Doherty, also have practices which in different ways examine the post colonial legacy.

The presence of artists such its Napier, Doherty and Kindness underlines one of the ways in which the exhibition focuses on the "dialogue" between the two countries. By bringing together artists who are, for the most part, engaged in overtly politicised practices, often dealing with national identity, a sceptic might say it would be possible to connect Irish, or indeed Mexican art with that of many different cultures.

Isn't it true, then, that Ziff's approach to the exhibition has been suggested by her own, almost certainly unique experience? Is there any stronger connection between these two cultures than Trisha Ziff?

"I suppose this is a bizarre connection. People haven't historically put these things together. And, yes, I suppose it does come from my direct experience. But think, after that, so what? Then let's talk about what these issues are.