Venice Biennale entries come to town
Friday, 4 July 2008
The Golden Thread Gallery can prove to be fairly hard to find but is actually in what was The Switch Room at 84-94 Great Patrick Street, Belfast.
It's a great space and the current exhibition features video installations by Willie Doherty and Gerard Byrne, bringing together work from the Ireland and the Northern Ireland exhibitions in last year's 52nd Venice Biennale, so if you haven't seen either of them before, now is the time.
Doherty, twice shortlisted for the Turner Prize, in 1994 and 2003, is showing Ghost Story, a piece commissioned by the curator Hugh Mulholland for the Biennale. Doherty currently lives and works in Londonderry where he was born in 1958 and his work tends to explore the dynamics of living in a divided community.
He first gained recognition in the 1980s when he exhibited a series of powerful photographs accompanied by emotive text. Focusing chiefly on everyday life during the Troubles, he continually eludes to the 'undercurrent of fear, oppression and uncertainty that for many was a daily experience'.
Byrne, who lives and works in Dublin, was born in 1969 and his work has been described as 'exploiting the ambiguities inherent in historicising the legacy of cultural forms'.
This particular example, ZAN-*T185, was shot in New York and commissioned by Culture Ireland for the Biennale. Produced by Ali Curran and shot at the New York Theatre Workshop with cinematographer Chris Doyle, it is based on microfilm records of early issues of Andy Warhol's Interview magazine and deals with the falseness of the media world. Within this concept it examines acting, fame and the complicity between interviewer and interviewee.
The exhibition continues until July 23.
Now, a little bit of history is being restored for us with the £7.43m refurbishment of the Ulster Hall.
As part of this major work a series of paintings by Joseph Carey, commissioned for the Hall in 1902, will be restored.
Robert Heslip, heritage officer with Belfast City Council, commented: " These paintings represent an invaluable piece of Belfast's heritage."
The Ulster Hall is one of Belfast's oldest buildings and it has played host to people as diverse as Charles Dickens, Led Zeppelin and Motorhead.
Finally, the Tom Caldwell Gallery is holding its Annual Summer Exhibition at 429 Lisburn Road, Belfast. As always the list of exhibitors is impressive with Johnny McEwen, Ronnie Wood, Colin Davidson, Carol Graham and Barbara Rae to mention just a few.
elizabethobaird@googlemail.com
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