The Only Good One is a Dead One is about living with the fear of being assassinated. It attempts to visualise this fear.

The Only Good One is a Dead One is a double screen video projection installation. On one screen the artist uses a handheld video camera to record a night time car journey, while the second screen shows the view from inside a car which is stationary on the street. The accompanying soundtrack is constructed from the interior monologue of a man who is vacillating back and forth between the fear of being the victim and the fantasy of being an assassin.

Taking as their source various cliches from both fictitious and documentary treatments of terrorism - driving alone on a country road at night, keeping watch on the getaway car, press photos accompanying stories about bombings and shootings - these images exploit the interface between television and newspaper reportage and the fantasy of violence and murder. They implicate the constructed nature of the imagery which describes the current conflict in Ireland.

The Only Good One is a Dead One forces the viewer to speculate about what might happen and to choose between innocence and guilt, Catholic or Protestant. It undermines any certainties about the truth and exists in parallel with mainstream mediated images of Ireland.

This coexistence creates a gap where the unspeakable and unspeaking face of violence is given a voice, where the victim and killer confront each other and the identities of murderer and volunteer are questioned.

To do otherwise is to accept the status of ‘legitimate target’.