Someone asked me recently what’s the point of going to art exhibitions. Part of it for me is the headspace of allowing new thoughts to form in a world that seems on many occasions not to want us to think at all.
It’s why in many galleries there is often a seat to sit on in front of different art pieces. For mindfulness practitioners and those who are practicing meditation a good exhibition to visit at the moment is Lighthouse: Donovan Wylie a series of photographs inspired by “the subject of borders in the wake of Brexit“ and made between 2016-2021.
This guy can take a pic. Lensman supreme Donovan Wylie. Masterful studies of H-Blocks & border watchtowers. And a great Prof at Belfast School of Art. @established regular to boot. pic.twitter.com/6E7ui6v7ao
— Máirtín Ó Muilleoir (@newbelfast) January 5, 2018
The large dominant pieces are best viewed while being still; can you see the dot of light coming from the lighthouse? The large grey expands of the water the barrier between the viewer and other land masses give time to consider isolation. We are used to art about borders on land, less so about borders of sea. The presence of light in the darkness calls back to the origins of Christianity. As our Covid deaths locally move past the three thousand barrier can we see the flash of light? Are we still enough to recognise it?
BORDERLINE: Donovan Wylie's works are at Golden Thread Gallery
Donovan Wylie is Professor of Photographer at Ulster University and has work in many collections including the MOMA New York, Victoria and Albert London and IMMA, Dublin. He also works in film and received a BAFTA for The Train in 2002. He has collaborated with Chris Klatell of the Seamus Heaney Centre to publish a book alongside the exhibition. Lighthouse runs until 12 February at The Golden Thread Gallery 84-94 Great Patrick Street, Belfast.
The second artist to be called by the sea is Alfred Wallis, currently showing at The MAC. He started painting because he was lonely after his wife died aged around seventy. After spending a life at sea, as a way of processing his memories, he took to painting the boats and sea he had experienced during his working life. Like many artists overcome with the need to create, he painted on anything he found, from packing cases to anything that sat still long enough — as well as using household and ship's paint.
Eventually, he turned his kitchen into his studio and was discovered by well-known artists Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood who shared a similar approach to art. Introductions to the Tate London led him to be included in their collection. Some of the correspondence with the Tate is shown alongside his paintings in the exhibition. The paintings are of his lived experience. You can tell by his marks that he knew the sea, it was in his bones. The rigging in the boats are based on working on them, the danger of the sea is felt in the waves. Self-taught, the joy of creativity is felt by viewing the exhibition and this is an inspiration to anyone in their later years yet to take up the brush. Alfred Wallis runs at The Mac until 27 March.
Places, Spaces and Traces exhibition by Cas Holmes at Rspace Gallery looks at the sea as another way of reflecting on her Romani heritage. Cad usually works through the medium of textile, stitching, drawing and produces pieces on reclaimed or gifted textiles as she travels all over the world.
Currently based in Kent, she Zoomed in for a talk explaining that she was inspired to make the textile banners while reflecting on her inherent privilege when locally twenty seven people died while trying to cross the channel. First shown on a barge in Kent they cast shadows and commented on this horrific incident. The textiles have been pieced together, worked on while on buses and trains, the words reflecting Brexit and snippets of headlines.
CHANNEL EMOTION: Cas Holmes
Land masses, warm and cold fronts and the weather are all featured. 28,300 people crossed the Dover Strait in small vessels in 2021. There is an opportunity to have your own piece of textile creation included in the exhibition with materials available in the gallery to be included in the next stop for the exhibition: Antwerp.
The Rspace Gallery at 32 Castle Street, Lisburn is open Tuesday to Saturday, 11am-5pm.
The fourth call of the sea is Swims Dairy from James King, highlighting drawings and text from open sea swimming that happened over a period of two years in the late 80’s when he lived in Glenarm. James King is a well-known performance artist and sound- poet and a retired lecturer in Theatre studies at the University of Ulster. In the book Swims Diary, which he has produced to support any cancer charities, is an edit of his diary consisting of a charcoal drawing of the swim experience along with observations which include the inner and outer weather, animal life, distance, time and incidents.
From Harp cans imaged into people and seagulls swooping to floating seaweed are all here. Sea swimming has increased in popularity during lockdown but there have long been brave souls who have waxed lyrical about the therapeutic benefits of salt water. The drawings always have the swimmer included and the book neatly shows the flow and challenge of matching words and visuals to form a cohesive whole. The exhibition Swims Diary is finished but the 94-page page picture book is available from the PPS Squared Gallery in Rosemary Street, Belfast.gallery. All proceed s to a Cancer charity of your choice.
