C108 Review

Dublin: Seamus Harahan at Project

Seamus Harahan: Holylands installation shot, 2004; courtesy Project

A shifty youth shins up a street sign to scrawl graffiti while his mates keep watch, a young boy idly strokes the curves of a parked car, an old man with wispy white hair hunts for waste wood, a child peers out from a blue plastic storage crate he has playfully hoisted onto his head. These are some of the scenes of Belfast streetlife which local artist Seamus Harahan surreptitiously captured for his film Holylands, showing at Project from 17 March to 29 April.

Any attempt to record 'ordinary' people going about their lives runs the risk of seeming condescending. However intriguing the selected scenes may be, the viewer may resist the editorial authority assumed by the artist. Harahan succeeds in presenting these stolen moments of strangers respectfully, while imbuing some of the vignettes with cautious iconographic grace.

It's appropriate that Holylands is approached at street level through open doors, because his short film is both familiar and beguiling.

Some of Andrew Kelly's work can be viewed at www.ignition.ie.

Seamus Harahan: Holylands, Project, Dublin, March / April 2004