And, if we observe the present

Catalyst Arts & Belfast Photo Festival

3rd June - 10th July 2021

And, if we observe the present as part of Belfast Photo Festival 2021 will be closing this Saturday the 10th of July. To celebrate the end of the exhibition and the festival we have three events lined up for our audience both online and in person.

Through an open call process, we asked artists who employ photography in their work to propose how the idea of a future can be visualised, predicted and prepared for. Four artists from across the island of Ireland were selected for their innovative interpretations of the theme: Kitsch Doom, Ben Malcomsom, Kate McElroy, and Dónal Talbot. Each of these artists' individual practices explore the medium's potential to expand and thrive in a multidisciplinary approach that utilises photography as a point of departure.

Their varying practices touch upon queer identity and experience, safe and reimagined space, decay and ruin, analogue and AI technologies. These concepts are collectively re-examined as narratives for possibility.

And if we observe the present: Performance

Kitsch Doom will be returning with Cyborg Heart 2021 on Saturday the 10th of July at 4pm for anyone who missed the opening performance. A recorded version of the performance will be available on our website after the exhibition closes.

Ben Malcolmson has created a new performance work to film, in direct response to the installation of their commissioned work Untitled (a various group of bodies) 2021. The video will be live from 6pm on Friday the 9th July.

And, if we observe the present : Publication

Catalyst commissioned three emerging writers to respond to the new work featuring in the exhibition. The publication was launched on the closing day of the exhibition and is available to purchase in the gallery and online, via emailing Catalyst Arts or via Good Press.

On June 16th at 6pm the work was presented at a virtual reading online as part of the Belfast Photo Festival Digital Programme by the writers themselves; offering insights, alternative perspectives and granting those who can't attend the exhibition the opportunity to experience it in a different way.

The three commissioned writers are Lucie McLaughlin, Harvey Dimond and Taiye Ojo. The event was hosted by Belfast Photo Festival.

Biographies:

Harvey Dimond is a British-Barbadian writer, researcher and artist living and working between Glasgow, Scotland and Athens, Greece. Through their practice they examine the relationship between the climate crisis, anti-Blackness and homo/trans-phobia. They were awarded a Decolonising Collections research residency by the Decolonising Arts Institute at UAL (2021) and an Emerging Curator’s Bursary from the British Art Network (2021).

Lucie McLaughlin is a writer from Belfast, currently based in Glasgow. She engages with writing as studio practice, focusing on the slippage between art and discipline, poetics and thinking, as a place where experimentation can reveal new connections in the relationship between the world and words. Recent work includes Thirstiness, an essay with SPAM (2021) and Suppose a Collapse, a collection of creative and critical writing with JOAN Publishing (2021)

Ojo Taiye is a Nigerian poet who uses poetry as a handy tool to hide his frustration with society. He is the winner of many prestigious awards including the 2021 Hay Writer's Circle Poetry Competition. He also makes use of collage & sampling techniques.