All I see is the present

Launch: Friday 19 June 2026, 7–9pm

For Christopher Steenson’s solo exhibition All I see is the present, the artist combines sound photography, installation and archival material to explore the ways in which moments from prehistory can be used as a gateway to the present. The exhibition is the first manifestation of the artist’s long-term engagement with research exploring the prehistoric past of the island of Ireland.

A centrepiece of this exhibition is a new installation The Dragon’s Teeth (2026), which takes its inspiration from the Beaghmore Stone Circles and Alignments, located in the heart of the artist’s native home of East Tyrone. The impetus for this work comes from the artist’s research into the archaeology archives of HERoNI (Historic Environment Record of Northern Ireland). This research unearthed a moment in 1977 when A.E.P. Collins (Senior Inspector of the Archeological Survey of Northern Ireland) invited Archie Thom (the son of then renowned archeo-astronomer Alexander Thom) to conduct an astronomical survey of Beaghmore, to uncover the celestial functions of the site. This moment is used to construct a fictional conversation between Collins and Thom, wherein these two men, in the later years of their life, attempt to discuss the meaning of Beaghmore as a prehistoric site. Inspired by Brian Friel’s Making History (1989), the work searches for understandings of why we attempt to interpret the past, and how these interpretations are inevitably shaped and informed by the predicaments of the present.

Christopher’s interest in teasing apart the tensions between tenses plays out elsewhere in the exhibition with a series of analogue photographs taken while volunteering for the past two years on an ongoing archaeological dig. In these photographs, moments from the excavation resemble a construction site more than a place of study. For the artist, the photographs document the point where objects that have been buried and confined to the past are unearthed and become uncanny participants in the present.

The artist draws parallels between megalith builders and political activists. A film made by Derry filmmaker Vinny Cunningam (1966–2025) in September 1994 shows a group of men moving concrete bollards (sometimes referred to as ‘dragon’s teeth’) from a border road outside Derry. Presented alongside colour photographs of wedge tombs situated along Ireland south-west coast, the acts of dismantlement seen in Vinny’s film oddly mirror – what we can imagine to be – the acts of construction used by megalith builders from the island’s prehistoric past. The film’s sound track is overlaid with a new spatial sound work, titled The Movers (2026), featuring voices of people involved in helping to make the exhibition All I see is the present.

All I see is the present is supported by:

Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Derry City & Strabane District Council, Garfield Weston Foundation, The Arts Council of Ireland, The Elephant Trust, Northern Ireland Screen Digital Film Archive.