Creative Exchange presents Art in the Eastside

Myra Jago, All this has happened before and it will all happen again

The Engine Room Gallery is currently exhibiting a selection of the original artwork submitted for the Art in the Eastside billboards project, the largest outdoor exhibition in Ireland which takes place annually across East Belfast. Much of the artwork has been created specially with East Belfast in mind, and reflects the social, cultural and political diversity that makes this area so unique.

We had a fantastic turn out for the opening reception on Thursday 5 September, which was preceded by a walking tour of the billboards led by The Forum for Alternative Belfast. The exhibition continues until Saturday 28 September.

The exhibition features work by: Colin Davis, Liam Campbell, Valeria Giannandrea, Ruth Moore, Aoife McGee, Myra Jago, Gerry Gleason, Joanne McMahon, Lauren Osbourne, Ray Duncan, Karen Day Hutchinson, Helen Paisley, David Fox, Breandan Clarke, Colin Darke, Barbara Craig, James Robert Moore, James Millar, Clinton Kirkpatrick, Victor Sloan, Alice Maher, Colin McGookin, Deirdre Robb, Jennifer Brown, Brooke-Valentine Menown, Ian Fleming, Katie Brown, Angela Anderson, Victoria J Dean, Ciara O'Malley, Patricia Vallely, Susan McWilliam, Michael Hart, Derick Hegarty, Olywn Colgan, Ramona Burke, Aisling O'Beirn, Emma Donaldson, George Robb, Ivan Frew, Jim Melin, Lisa Ballard, Robert JE Simpson, Heather J Ferguson, Patrick Colhoun, Maura O'Rourke, Rachel McBride, Aidan Butler, Stephen Millar, Andrew Haire, Margaret Woods, Mike Connor, Rachel Coote and Lesley Cherry.

Exhibition of New Work by Mary Martin

The Engine Room Gallery is delighted to host an exhibition of new work by Mary Martin, inspired by her travels to the Algarve in Southern Portugal.

 "The strangeness of this beautiful shore was both familiar and foreign to me. Walking along the rocky cliff tops reminded me of scrambling across the hills of south Armagh as a child. The pounding ocean has carved its mark into the towering sandstone cliffs creating holes and cavities in weak spots. I am interested in the ambiguous nature of holes. They can be somewhere to hide – a place of refuge or they can represent the void, the abyss [black holes]. They occur regularly on the rock-face and in the shadow of bridges. The shore is an interface that shifts as land and sea resist each other."

"The work developed from drawing the lines that scored and shaped the vertical face of the soaring cliffs and rock stacks that stand like the walls of a fortress above the restless water. The formation of cracks and crevasses in the rock modulates on a different timescale to the powerful ocean with its rhythmic tides and lashing waves. The splendour of the cliffs reminded me of a few lines from Colm Toibin’s book The Master, ‘It was easier to be old here, [he thought]; no colour was simple, nothing was fresh, even the sunlight itself seemed to fall and linger in ways which had been honoured by time.’ The alterations in colours reflect the mood of the hour, the seasons, the time of the day in this elemental landscape."

Mary was born in south Armagh in 1962 and studied at the University of Ulster. She has since worked as artist-in-residence at the University of Ulster Print Department and was awarded the Turner Prize for Drawing at the University of Ulster in 2007. She has exhibited in Ireland, Canada and Bulgaria and her work is held in private and public collection including the Department of the Environment.

The exhibition continues until Saturday 31 August 2013.

Liam de Frinse's Eco Art's Lab at Minnowburn

The continuous stream of visitors to the Gallery boasting of their strolls in the "glorious" summer sunshine had me bursting to escape for an art adventure of my own. The opportunity presented itself on Wednesday when I happened upon Liam de Frisne at his new studio, the Eco Art's Lab - located next to the River Lagan at Minnowburn. Nestled amidst the trees, the Eco Art's Lab acts as a hub for the Lagan Love Trail - a seven mile 'happening' that weaves Ireland's longest love poem along the river's towpath from the Island Arts Centre in Lisburn ending at Shaw’s Bridge.The Love Trail is an ever-evolving project as visitors are encouraged to contribute and add their own story to the work. Liam further explains this on his CreativeChangeNI blog,

"The philosophy of the Lagan Love Trail is about giving and exchanging resources so that everybody owns it and nobody owns it thus enhancing our well being on this small planet for such a small time we are on it. Sharing the love, Joy, mystery and passion for life."

Indeed, the work is growing day by day and it is transforming just as quickly. I hope you enjoy the photographs taken at The Art's Lab but it is certainly worth visiting the site yourself to truly grasp the breadth of this beautiful project.

 

more photos after the jump.....