Victor Sloan

Victor Sloan (born Dungannon, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, 1945) is an Irish photographer and artist.

Related Topics:
Dungannon - County Tyrone - 1945

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Victor Sloan studied at Belfast and Leeds Colleges of Art, England. He lives and works in Portadown, Co. Armagh in Northern Ireland. Employing primarily the medium of photograpy, he manipulates his negatives and reworks his prints with paints, inks, toners and dyes. In addition to photography, he also uses video, and printmaking techniques.

Related Topics:
Belfast - Leeds - England - Portadown - Co. Armagh - Northern Ireland - Paints - Inks - Dyes - Photography - Video - Printmaking

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His works are a response to political, social and religious concerns. He is perhaps best known for his works investigating the Orange Order in series such as: Drumming; The Walk, the Platform and the Field and The Birches.

Related Topics:
Political - Social - Religious - Orange Order - Walk - Platform - Field - Birches

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A typical image from the Northern Irish works of Victor Sloan is Walk X from 1985. It is a silver gelatin print, 64 cm. by 50 cm. In it we see dead centre, splitting the image, a uniformed policeman with a peaked cap. He is in profile, staring tight-lipped at the parade, feet apart in a rooted stance, symbol of law-and-order but also unusually for the North, of impartiality, indicated by his dead centre stance. From the left a huge Lambeg drum, strapped to its unseen owner's chest, juts out across the body; but it has been rendered semi-transparent so that the outline shape of the policeman can still be seen.

Related Topics:
Image - Works - 1985 - Policeman - Profile - Parade - Symbol - Dead - Left - Drum - Body

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On one level this drum functions as a musical instrument, the rhythmic 'keeper of the beat'. But the unhinged arm, wielder of a timpani-like drum-stick, indicates not only the wardrum call, but also the potential of the drum-stick as a weapon. On another level the drum is like a Jasper Johns target with its concentric circles of black, white, black and white again for the heart of the target. The paradox is that the policeman who has often been seen, in the eyes of Catholics, as the defender of the Protestant tradition, has now become a target for his own Loyalist people (the police being a largely Protestant force).

Related Topics:
Level - Musical instrument - Rhythmic - Timpani - Weapon - Jasper Johns - Concentric - Target - Catholics - Protestant - Tradition - Loyalist

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Victor Sloan's video work includes a 44 minute video of an 8mm looped film fragment of The Little Rascals,(1930's) , which destroys itself and catches fire. This was shown in the Gastag in Munich and in Toskanische Saulenhalle, Augsburg, Germany, 2004 as part of his installation Stadium. Gavin Weston in the Sunday Times describes it when first exhibited in the Old Museum Arts Centre, Belfast: "...a noisy trundling projector surrounded by four large prints at which one strains to peer through the blacked-out gloom. Staring back in time and this dingy light are the eyes of Adolf Hitler, bolstered by images of the Werner March/ Albert Speer - designed stadium that hosted the Berlin Olympics of 1936. There is no further direct reference to Jesse Owens, the Führer's gravest embarrassment, but flickering through this laden environment, archive footage of white children allowing a black child to draw the short straw, serves as an indicator". Other video works include Drumcree (2001) and Walk (2004).

Related Topics:
Video - 8mm - Film - The Little Rascals - 1930 - Fire - Gastag - Munich - Toskanische Saulenhalle - Augsburg - Germany - 2004 - Installation - Stadium - Gavin Weston - Sunday Times - Old Museum Arts Centre - Projector - Adolf Hitler - Werner March - Albert Speer - Berlin Olympics - 1936 - Jesse Owens - Environment - Archive - Drumcree - Walk

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Victor Sloan was awarded an MBE in 2002. He is an academician of the Royal Ulster Academy, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society. He won the Academy's Conor Prize in 1988 and the Gold Medal in 1995. The Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast held a major exhibition of his work (Victor Sloan: Selected Works 1980-2000) in 2001.

Related Topics:
MBE - 2002 - Academician - Royal Ulster Academy - Royal Society of Arts - Fellow - Royal Photographic Society - 1988 - Medal - 1995 - Ormeau Baths Gallery - Exhibition - 2001

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