Belfast break

 Last week I was up in Belfast for a short city break. On the way back to the hotel after a delicious dinner, I came across this impressive piece of stainless steel public art "The Spirit of Belfast" by Dan George.

The next day was spent mostly at The Mac, a very large arts centre. My visit to Belfast was precipitated by the exhibition "I Draw, I Do" by David Hockney that I wanted to see before it closed. Specifically, I wanted to see Le Plongeur, one of Hockney's "Paper Pools", which I knew was included in the exhibition. One of my nieces gave me Paper Pools (the book) last xmas after noting that I had bemoaned selling my copy of it before emigrating more than 20 years ago. I had never seen one of these works in person before and was not disappointed. This is a very large, multi-panelled absolutely gorgeous "painting" made directly from paper.

The Mac was also hosting several other exhibitions, exploring "the possibilities of sculpture, installation and object-making". Keith Wilson's Calendar took up the entire space of the upstairs gallery.

Wilson's work explored the artist's studio - its relation to  itself, the gallery space, the artist, detritus and time... There are openings between the "months" to facilitate squeezing through to the interior for a different perspective.

Barbara Knezevic's work The Last Thing on Earth was installed in the Sunken Gallery on the ground floor. This work explores a theoretical object and speculative items involved with its unknown purpose.

I thought the inclusion of "rayograms" as theoretical documentation was interesting.