It’s an interesting, thought-provoking and probably culturally significant exhibition but ? is it art?

I’m talking about Roderick Buchanan’s exhibition in Belfast’s Ormeau Baths Gallery and in order to answer that question we would need to embark upon the path of, what exactly is art? I don’t really want to go there so — it’s in a gallery, it’s called an art exhibition and I suppose it is comprised of what could loosely be described as ‘artworks’ (not actually ‘works of art’ but then that opens up another, entirely different, can of worms).

Back, however, to what the leaflet describes as ‘artwork which references sectarianism as manifested in history, culture and society.’ Much of this show has been taken from ‘Histrionics’, commissioned by the Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow Museums in 2007.

The issues dealt with then were identity, terrorism and nation and the works are Buchanan’s personal responses to these, given that that he has a family history of ‘mixed marriages’, and a love of football, the latter placing him directly in the firing line between Celtic and Rangers.

The latter has provoked one entire gallery full of photographs, very ordinary ones, snaps really, of all sorts of characters and their football jerseys.

Anyhow, the main thrust of this show is Buchanan’s personal response to sectarian issues and the areas, both social and physical, where they cause real conflict. He explores, fairly extensively, his family tree, highlighting the number of mixed marriages and reveals the surprising internationalism of football squads normally assumed to, er, ‘kick with only the one foot’ as we would say here in Ulster.

He is also heavily into the life and times of the political activist, Thomas Muir, after whom his old Secondary School was named.

Mind you, this boy is not just anybody, he is right up there with the big players — he won the Becks Futures Prize, and the Spirit of Scotland Prize. He exhibited in the 2001 Venice Biennale and the 11th Indian Triennial in 2005 and his work, again according to the leaflet, ‘whilst sitting within a contemporary art context, allows for engagement across social and religious boundaries’.

And, all in all, it is quite an upbeat show, perhaps more of a socio-historical exploration, aiming to undermine some of our stereotypes and ingrained notions. But, at the risk, once again, of being the little boy who pointed out the emperor’s nakedness, I ask my original question. Very nice, but is it art?

elizabethobaird@googlemail.com