In the 1830s sappers from the British Military etched benchmarks (crows-feet type marks) into bridges and stone structures to calculate their height above sea-level and assist with mapping the terrain, which would ultimately provide a system for taxation. Locals feared the benchmarks that were carved into stone and called this secret language of engineers and cartographers the 'devil's mark'.

My Benchmark body of work captures a link between landscape and language, a coded language that references sea-level, cartography and colonial power. My process includes making plastercasts of benchmarks, then dipping them in oil paint to use as tools to apply paint to the surface of a canvas. Each sapper had his individual way of chiselling out the stone to leave a mark, and this variety of markmaking interests me - as a painting's strength often relies on the variety of brushmarks on the canvas.

The benchmark chiselled into the stone steps of the courthouse in Castlebar, Co. Mayo witnessed the strength and dignity of victims in their pursuit of justice.