Page 18 - Art First: Helen MacAlister: The Glamour of Backwardness

AF HM catalogue 2023 PRINT.qxp_Layout 1 15/06/2023 17:36 Page 16

The Illusion of the Nation State

2017, oil on linen triptych, each panel 29.7 x 21 cm (a4)

‘Media, as celebrated sociologist of nationalism Ernest Gellner understood, plays a pivotal role
in producing and sustaining the illusion of the nation-state as a permanent and immutable object.’
Peter Geoghegan, The People’s Referendum, p.151