Winter 2001 - Belfast I
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| Top left : Frank Corry: The Chaps Paused For A While, To Take The Munster Air... ; Middle left : Terry Loane: Bird's eye view/evil eye ; Centre : Brendan Byrne: Just weight ; all images courtesy Old Museum Arts Centre; Top right : Robin Carson: Shedonism; Middle right : Tom Bevan: from It isn't easy having fun ; images courtesy Old Museum Arts Centre |
I entered the Old Museum Arts Centre under Gavin Weston's erection - well he gave the barber's pole that title, not me - to be confronted by two bouncers. Happily they were only cardboard cut-outs of Bill Penny's twenty-four-year-old rugby-playing 'pup'. I lifted a catalogue to find that the show was called Ten Men Artists . Ten men showing in Belfast's 'Wee Dolls Gallery'! I turned right and was confronted by The Chaps Paused For A While, To Take The Munster Air... by Frank Corry. This was an old VW van so beloved by balding hippies with ponytails. I never liked the things - both the hippies and the VW's that is - but this van was an old friend. I had seen it arrive in a sorry state at the Fire Station Artists Studios where it was lovingly restored to its new role as art object, container of a long-lost tape from a Boy's Own weekend of booze and drugs.
The amusingly named Shedonism by Robin Carson was actually a shed in the yard behind OMAC. Househusband Carson obviously aspires to owning such a shed, to where he can "escape competing responsibilities and life's stresses and strains." Back inside again I found this bastion of feminism was housing sculptures of men with massive penises by Tom Bevan and Predator by Michael Trainor, who obviously has a car fetish. Well I suppose someone had to, didn't they. Mmmm, perhaps not.
The work of Brendan Byrne extended beyond the gallery. Images from Albrecht Dürer could be seen during the day in the gallery while at night a web-cam arrangement brought them to the pubs and clubs of Belfast. As well as personal ads in the Belfast Telegraph , Terry Loane brought images of the OMAC toilet to a wider audience via scanner vision.
Ten Men Artists was never meant to be taken too seriously and seems to have created some light-heartiness in Belfast's art world. However, I don't totally agree with Gavin Weston when he writes in the foreword of the catalogue, "a commonality of gender would seem a somewhat tenuous criterion by which a group of artists might categorise their practice." This was written in the context of criticising shows by 'Women Artists'. There have been many excellent exhibitions by women artists addressing issues of concern to women. Art is an excellent means by which women can highlight anything from male chauvinism to rape, from discrimination to breast cancer. The dangers of breast cancer have been an issue for a long time yet testicular cancer has only recently been highlighted in a poster campaign here. Men often shy away from issues about themselves, their bodies and inner feelings. There is an exhibition by men about male concerns waiting to be done but whether any male artists are brave enough to take it on is another matter.
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The previous exhibition at OMAC was the photographic show Cold Heaven by Don McCullin. McCullin is recognised as one of the world's leading photojournalists. Last year he travelled to Africa to photograph the HIV/AIDS epidemic. We might feel that we are becoming immune to documentary photography, but this was a striking and deeply moving show. The black-and-white photographs stare at you, communicating the terrible tragedy that is happening in Africa. This is documentary photography at its very best. It is two months since I saw the show but the images still haunt me. McCullin is in no way sentimental, nor does it ever look as if he asked anyone to pose for the photographs. It is as if he withdraws himself from the photograph, leaving you, the viewer, staring intimately into each image of hopelessness.
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Perspective seems to grow in stature every year and it can now justly claim to be a true reflection of international art. 1 Any weaknesses in this year's show are more down to general weaknesses in contemporary art rather than a weakness in the exhibition. From a broad base, Annie Fletcher and David Wilkinson have selected a show that is a good reflection of contemporary art practice.
As might be expected, video was strongly represented, but this is a medium that seems to be taking a long time to come of age and all too often is used as an easy or lazy means of expression. Seamus Harahan uses video to capture sections of everyday life. The trouble is that I found looking out of the upstairs window of the gallery at everyday life in real time much more interesting than his video work. Karen Downey on the other hand manages to create a disturbing work outside the gallery's lift. Her video of lace curtains blowing gently in front of a broken window evokes both a feeling of hidden danger and surveillance. The positioning of the work, where it was possible to see through that gallery window to the real world while at the same time being confronted by the work, helped to give the piece a context.
There has been much talk of the amount of big-name sound tracks that have been used this year. Sometimes they appeared to be there to bolster up the work. When looking at Erik Aalto's piece you could at least listen to Emmylou Harris while being bored by a nonstop video of that old cliché, a women riding a horse. More challenging was Ben Pruskin's video installation. In a darkened space, plain coloured monitors changed from one colour to the next. They surrounded one monitor on which appeared texts. The work was hypnotic and if anything the Beethoven sound track was distracting.
Sound, performance, slide projection and video were all used by Fabienne Audéoud in her prize-winning piece, which actually took more the form of a lecture than anything else. This sophisticated overlapping of different media seemed to document her life and a recent sad loss. Although a very personal work it was certainly not navel inspection. The viewer was drawn into the work and no doubt every member of the audience will have seen the work differently as they brought their own personalities and experiences to bear. It is the strength of this work that, although personal, it encouraged engagement.
On a plain table Andrea Jespersen offered books of tracings. As you turned the pages the books acted as palimpsests, with one line drawing being laid on top of the previous, so there was a constant build up and change of imagery. The actual images were all taken from children's encyclopaedias. Some of the drawings, like the outlines of countries or flags, were recognisable while others were not so obvious. Katie Holten drew on the floor of the gallery using soil and weeds as her drawing material. Holten goes around the city collecting the soil and weeds and certainly just outside the gallery there are plenty of such sites. The work looks strong in a gallery context with the weeds and soil contrasting with the space. I saw her work in EV+A and thought it looked well there, but I still think she needs to resolve the actual shape the drawings take.
The most beautifully made objects in the show were Katrina Moorhead's swimming pools. She collects the polystyrene packaging that you would expect to find discarded after someone had opened their new computer or television. Moorhead then spends months tiling these with miniature tiles, which are about 2 mm square. Finally she grouts the work. The tiles are specially made and their preciousness in contrast with the throw-away nature of the polystyrene combines to make an exquisite object.
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Top to bottom above :
Erik Aalto: Holding on , 2001, installation shot; Katrina Moorhead: Someone else's salt on sea (Moonmist) , 2001; Andrea Jespersen: Still in search of a straight line , 2001, installation shot; Katie Holten: Plot , 2001, installation shot; all images courtesy Ormeau Baths Gallery
Bill Saunders: from augenblick ; courtesy Engine Room Gallery |
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Large-format colour photographs are not what one thinks of when thinking of the work of Bill Saunders; sculpture is usually his medium. In the Engine Room Gallery Saunders has 'decorated' the space with photographs of his studio. They are oval in shape, harking back to his mother and presumably the broaches or pendants she wore. The images of the studio use a mirror of his mother's to create multiple images and distortions. Images of more recognisable Saunders work can be seen in the fragmentary glances one gets of the studio. Part of a reflected image of Saunders-the-photographer could also be seen in each of the photographs. The work obviously has a very personal feeling to it, with references to his childhood, his mother, where he grew up and where he is now with his work. It is interesting that he has forsaken his beloved wood to explore this more private side of himself.
Finally beyond is a new Belfast-based organisation with which I must declare an interest. So all I will say is that it aims to be international and to promote live art. Its first event spread over two Saturdays took place in St. George's Market. Called Place in The Market it showed the work of both Irish and international artists.
Brian Kennedy is an artist based in Belfast and a CIRCA Contributing Editor.
1 See also Visual Arts North , page 9 - Ed.
2 See also I review which follows - Ed.
Ten Men Artists , Old Museum Arts Centre, October/November 2001
Don McCullin; Cold Heaven , Old Museum Arts Centre, August/September 2001
Perspective , Ormeau Baths Gallery, September/October 2001
Bill Saunders: augenblick , Engine Room Gallery, October 2001
Reprinted from CIRCA 98, Winter Issue 2001, pp. 38-39.
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