Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast
1 October – 27 November
Reviewed by: Gemma Tipton
The most satisfying exhibitions, in my experience, are one-person shows: exhibitions where the selected works of a single artist can build to develop a narrative, a stronger sense of itself, a (as the Holywood marketeers might put it) ‘total’ experience. Too often group shows, especially open submission exhibitions, become a selection of one-liners, clustered loosely around a theme, building to considerably less than the sum of their parts. In this analysis, ‘Perspective’ is the exception to the rule. Selector Vittorio Urbani (from Venice’s Nuova Icona gallery) has dispensed with the notion of an over-arching theme as a lazy curatorial catch-all, instead opting for, as he puts it, an “anti-democratic, non-scientific, even idiosyncratic process”. The result of this is that the work on display is intriguing and satisfying in, and of, itself.
The work of twenty artists has been selected, and for its luxury of quality, this seventh ‘Perspective’ is an exhibition that demands time, and more than one visit. Prize-winner Grace Ndiritu’s The Nightingale bears several viewings itself. In this performance video piece, Ndiritu melds textile art, with performance, with video, and sound to create a work which pauses into moments of sculptural beauty. Using the elegantly simple conceit of the headscarf, the protagonist slowly reveals herself, developing, with the rhythm of the music, a series of vignettes, transforming her from veiled woman to Black Panther to fashionable ‘hip’ artist. We can simultaneously be one and many things, and carry many histories within ourselves.
The format of ‘Perspective’ begs a prize, and yet in this well-judged exhibition, it still seems unfair to single one work out. Paula J Lynch’s video Dance again uses pared-down simplicity to capture the complex senses and nuances of a relationship slowly subsiding from love into that steady attrition of low-grade mutual warfare. Pieces like Jessica Jones’ Every tool is a weapon if you hold it right, carved onto the upper gallery wall, and Andrea Stanislav’s The Forest of the Bunktum Booger, a surreal installation of pinecones, pink fur and mirrors, create the commanding ‘wow’ necessary to grab the attention from quieter works like Dougal McKenzie’s The Limits of Permissiveness, which is a series of watercolour reproductions of pages from Herbert Read’s book Contemporary British Art. As an artist captures the words which attempt to capture art, we are in that Alice in Wonderland world of the conceptual, where it becomes increasingly unclear who is investigating whom.
These issues of attention and balance are ones which continue to affect the way in which group shows work. Upstairs at the Ormeau Baths Gallery, sounds from different pieces interact to create a sense of vibrancy, the gallery air (it seems) is thick with ideas – from Aisling O’Beirn’s narratives, to the deadpan wit of McCormack & Gent’s They spoke softly. Downstairs, however, Grace Ndiritu’s The Nightingale does battle with the soundtrack from its neighbour, Ergin Cavusoglu’s Poised in the Infinite Ocean, whose haunting soundtrack is frequently interrupted by the noises from next-door. Ormeau Baths director Hugh Mulholland knows his gallery well enough to position works like Fergus Feehily’s series of small delicate oils, and Paul Howard’s captivating Restoration in the first gallery, where they have space to breathe, but the presentation of pieces using sound is an urgent issue for the architects of our new gallery spaces to address.
So yes, in general, group shows can be unsatisfying affairs, but the format is redeemed with exhibitions like ‘Perspective’, where the overarching sense is one of the excellence of what is going on out there. And while the mind will continue to seek narratives and connections, the ones that arise from a viewing of ‘Perspective’ are the connections of work that considers, and presents, ideas, moments of intensity, beauty, all those things that keep art so entirely vital in the scheme of things.
Writer detail:
Gemma Tipton is a writer on art and architecture based in Dublin and is editor of Contexts magazine.
Venue detail:
Ormeau Avenue Gallery Ltd.
18a Ormeau Avenue, Belfast BT2 8HS
No one has commented on this article yet, why not be the first?
To post a comment you need to login
Back to top