STATION, in collaboration with Platform Arts, Belfast.
STATION opened to the public for one night as part of Late Night Art on Thursday 4th of March, which included a radio interview for BBC Radio Good Morning Ulster featuring myself, Ruaidhri Lennon and Mairead Dunne.
The project space is situated on Queen Street in the heart of Belfast city. The building itself, a former hospital and RUC Barracks is currently being used as an artist space until its renovation in two years’ time, when it will become a Bar/ Hotel.
Artist Statement:
Vacancy addresses the station building’s shifting architectural and cultural status from that of a police station to a hotel. The installation consists of a half opened door that allows the viewer to look in at a mirror reflecting the back of the room, in which one corner has been transformed into a hotel room. In the mirror the image of the hotel room becomes a possible reality, a glimpse forward. However, the illusion is broken once the viewer looks around the door at the actual installation, which is entirely fake, manufactured out of paper and everyday throw-away materials, and lit like a film set, with tools and rubbish left just “off-screen”.
Ultimately it is the concept of failure, the suspension of disbelief and the inevitable disclosure of reality that fascinates me. This listed building, full of traces of the past, will become just another hotel/bar, gutted and perhaps its history flaunted for commercial purposes. For now this building is an in-between space, with the potential to become anything and nothing, which exists both in the real and the imaginary world.
Below are images of the piece, entitled Vacancy, made as part of this project:
Mirror image, view from the door
Full room view
Installation shot- detail
Installation shot- detail