Martin Healy was born in London. He graduated from Crawford College of Art in 2000 and has taken part in the artist residency program at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in 2007 and the PS1 Institute for Contemporary Art's International Studio Program in 2000/1. Recent solo exhibition:s 'I want to believe' at RHA Gallagher Gallery Dublin(publication available); 'Here be monsters' Rubicon Gallery, Dublin; 'Looking for Jodie', Rubicon Gallery Dublin. Healy currently lives and works in Dublin, Ireland.

Martin Healy's work is an investigation of how the aesthetics of fear are constructed through the mediated images of popular culture. These concerns have been explored by examining the notion of popular cultural mythologies. The process started with a series of photographs in the town of Amityville, Long Island entitled Looking for Jodie (2000) that explored an infamous supernatural myth and continued with explorations of The Jersey Devil. In his video, Here be monsters (2004) Healy investigated a popular belief in the existence of a mythical beast in New Jersey. Recent video installations have included Genesis 28:12 (2006) which dealt with backwards masking, the phenomena of hidden messages in reversed music and Skywatcher (2007) which explored belief in the existence of UFO’s through a witness’s interview. The photographic series, entitled The Sleep of Reason (2006) refers directly to the winged creatures in Goya's print where the rationality of the human mind is suspended whilst sleeping.

The connection of language to mythology is an area Healy has explored with his video work in particular. To some extent all mythologies require a suspension of belief to obtain the necessary plausibility and his work is an examination of the individual belief structures that support these mythologies. His approach to photography references the perceptual phenomena of ‘pareidolia’. By recording images at significant sites the surface of the photograph is imbued with a sense of expectancy that suggests there may be more present in the image and this extends the narrative beyond the frame edge.

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