Belfast teams with energy and possibility. I feel totally sympatico with this city. I feel like the pink double-decker buses were painted just for me. Pink has been my core colour since I bartered with a design firm when I was a consultant and they told me that hot pink was “who I was” and I realized they were right. It’s strong and bold, feminine but not fragile. When the man with the orange rug on his head (who shall not be named) was elected, I decided that bright colours would be my form of protest, a counter move to the darkness in the world. Belfast has bright bold colours nearly everywhere you look – even in the bathrooms!
I found the light entrancing. The mystery in the sky is ever-changing and changeable. I stopped to consider the way the light fell on buildings and snapped away on my iPhone, trying to capture the essence of this place. People don’t seem to take head when the clouds burst and there is a sudden rain shower, they just keep walking. After a couple of days, I found myself leaving my umbrella in its bag, knowing with confidence that the sun was just around the corner.
I went to Belfast partly on a reconnaissance mission, to find future fits and folks for as yet unimagined projects, and partly to mark my participation in the Linen Biennale Norther Ireland.
Tragically, UPS held onto my sculpture until the day I left, the day before the show closed. Meadhb (pronounced Maeve) curated Common Threads. She’s a warm and spritely 30-something independent curator, artist and arts manager. Meadhb hosted me, showed me around the East End of Belfast, that boats multiple mixed art/commercial complexes that have taken over the shells of old factories or mills – reminiscent of the Distillery District in Toronto’s East end. I had a meaningful and memorable studio visit with Derek Wilson, who shared openly about his creative process and took me to his “secret room” where he’s working with cardboard and paper collage, reflecting on the ceramic work he is known for internationally. I dropped by Belfast Ceramics, the first and only drop-in/membership based community pottery studio in the city – odd that, there is much demand, just as there is for the many many pottery places that mushroomed during/post COVID in Toronto. Helen and her tech Lucy and I had a great exchange of ideas and process, career challenges and hurdles.
I “did” the museum and contemporary gallery circuit, buried my nose in Belfast’s last subscription library, Linen Hall, and partook of a guided tour of City Hall. I returned to the Lisburn Irish Linen Museum that Ali had spontaneously taken us to as a detour two years ago. I met with fellow ceramic artists in the community and the museums’ curator. I gave my artist talk at the civic arts complex. It’s a tiny walkable town that oozes charm. The calibre of the international exhibition that Meadbh put together is more than impressive – I was completely drawn in, somewhat spellbound by much of the work. And I’m home, turning my head to completing the solo show that’s opening in Montreal on October 23rd around the race protests of 1969, and my father’s character witness of the accused white Biology professor who catalyzed the whole international incident.
thanks to the Ontario Arts Council for the Market Development Grant