Presenting the West

Billy Leahy tries to sidestep the clichés as he makes his tentative journey into the West at The Royal Hibernian Academy's latest exhibition

You know the scene. A picturesque, isolated cottage, the barren landscape, the rural idyll, the tourists' romanticised view of 'the old country' and, of course, the John Hinde iconography. Perhaps there is no bigger cliché in representations of Ireland than images of 'The West'.

Such cynical views are initially difficult to shift, and when heading into The West as Metaphor exhibition at the Royal Hibernian Academy, it seemed troublesome to raise expectations past this narrow and preconceived viewpoint.

However, the subject matter of the West through the history of Irish art is a fundamental and hugely pertinent theme. The broad scope of the Royal Hibernian Academy show encompasses pretty much the full gamut of artistic styles and the manners in which the West has been represented: from Paul Henry's 'Connamara Landscape', through Michael Craig-Martin video piece for his final year project for his BA in Fine Art at Yale in 1962, to contemporary video works by Clare Langan, Dorothy Cross and Grace Weir.

In many ways, The West as Metaphor offers us a frame-by-frame glimpse into Irish art over the last century, but one centred on a homogenous subject matter. This element alone is intrinsically interesting, but the true value of the exhibition lies in the changing interpretations of this theme.

The earlier pieces, such as John Crampton Walker's 'Thatched Cottage', are focused on the idea of constructing a national identity for a newly born independent state, presenting specific and generic images of the West as a means to inseminate consciousness of nationhood.

Refreshingly, the good folks at the RHA have met my cliché-concern head on, rather than ignoring or eschewing the matter – which probably would have been the easy escape route. The exhibition brilliantly accepts the importance of the ubiquitous stereotyped view of the West, examining and recognising how the Irish Tourist Board, for instance, used this as a tool for their purposes.

So on the opposite wall to a Paul Henry original, we are presented with a vintage Aer Lingus tourist-orientated poster from 1956, which uses one of his idyllic paintings as its main image. Even the perfect postcard portraits of John Hinde are present in the show, adding to the warts-and-all assessment of the subject matter.

But this romanticised aspect is under-cut throughout the show by more bleak and realistic works, with the depiction of a deathly and devastated post-famine scene in Dan O'Neill's 'Western Landscape' being a case in point. Craig-Martin's piece reflects both cultural disintegration in the West, but also shows forces of change and renewal dawning on the region.

Other obvious themes are touched on throughout the exhibition, with migration, rights of passage, Catholicism and the very authenticity of rural identity all raising their heads sporadically and continuously in the works. The West as Metaphor also realises that such a broad and pivotal subject matter cannot be dealt with in one exhibition, and so a second show is planned for next year, which will focus on the environmental aspects of the region, including topography, ecology and natural history.

Thankfully, The West as Metaphor is as far away from tired cliché as might be hoped and it is difficult not to concur with co-curator Patrick T Murphy's observation that the West is such an obvious theme that it is surprising there has not been an exhibition on the topic before.

?More The West as Metaphor, until 24 April. Gallery One, Royal Hibernian Academy, 15 Ely Place, Dublin 2.

01 661 2558. www.royalhibernianacademy.com