Fortnight Publications Ltd.

The Work in Question: Painting and the Critical VoidAuthor(s): Gavin MurphySource: Fortnight, No. 375, Supplement: What Do You See? (Dec., 1998 - Jan., 1999), pp. 12-13Published by: Fortnight Publications Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25559603 .

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What do you see?: visual arts in Belfast and beyond

The work in question

Painting and the critical void

Gavin Murphy

Artist Shane Cullen pictured beside a section of his Fragmens sur les Institutions Republicaines, No's. 65-68

JljLow can painting enrich an understanding of political conflict in Northern Ireland? Two sets of work, which have

been shown in Belfast in recent years, offer a possible

an

swer to this question. The first body of work is Shane Cullen's Fragmens sur les

Institutions Republicaines, No's. 65-68. Here, Cullen

worked on four large tablet-like panels over the period of

four weeks in the gallery space. The artist transcribed me

ticulously in paint the contents of numerous Comms; the

written communications smuggled in and out of the H

Blocks between hunger strikers and their friends and rela

tives.

For the paintings and the artist to appear in a gallery set

ting is to ask of the relationship between the artist and the

material he works with. Attention is drawn to aesthetic struc

tures through which the republic has been imagined in re

cent European history. The title of the piece relates to the

writings of St. Just. The use of Bondoni type also draws a

parallel with the French Revolution, as indeed the austere

monumental scale and the theme of martyrdom recall the

neoclassical ideal as it was reshaped by artists at that time

such as David. To re-contextualise the Comms in this way is

to connect eighteenth century republican ideals to a present strain in the North. It is also to remind us that the themes

of death and fraternity underlie official acts of commemo

ration as well as those desiring them.

There certainly is a strong declamatory tone to this work.

But for the artist to have remained present throughout the

exhibition, hand painting each letter and word, is to intro

duce ambivalence to an understanding. A distance is set up

between the artist and the material being dealt with. It sug

gests that to simulate the aesthetic structures through which

the republic or nation state has been imagined is one way

in which to understand how historical narratives can so

lidify through the monument. But an uneasy tension per

sists, particularly if it is considered how the painted marks

are subordinated to the demands of the typeface. It appears to be a

dangerous play with potent forces surrounding state

hood.

This ambivalence begs the question that if a republican

monument is not being created, what is? The answer: a space

through which to explore the complexity of history and its

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What do you see?: visual arts in Belfast and beyond

Mickey Donnelly's 'Belfast Series (no 2)'

formation through the visual. For if on one level this work

introduces a wider cultural and historical perspective than

forces framing republicanism in the North as a local aber

ration would allow, it asks us on another level to disentan

gle the complexities and tensions between noble sentiments

of past and present anomaly. It is to ask if this is not what is,

what is?

Mickey Donnelly's Belfast Series also uses overt symbol ism as a starting point. Iconic hand gestures, hats (whether

Carson's or Connelly's), black gloves and images of the black

rose litter these works. Symbols deliver meaning. In the

Belfast Series, however, they appear strikingly hollow. Cer

tainly they still resonate as encrusted rhetoric. But their set

ting ensures this density will recede. In 'Belfast Series

(No.2)' for example, images of stacked hats are inlaid and

overlaid upon other hat images. A cycle of myth within myth

upon myth resounds to the effect that the significance of

the initial symbol diminishes.

The symbols are sunk into a thickly layered surface of

paint dashes, colour washes, drip flows, scumbled pigment and aleatory marks. Meshed strips of plaster of Paris, them

selves ripe with allusion, also contribute to the sense of

depth. The paint marks register a layering of decision and

chanced movement before silent space. These marks prom ise but never fully yield meaning. They point to the limits

of understanding in as much as we retreat to the familiar in

the face of the unknown. Yet this language of paint further

silences depicted symbolism in as much as symbol is torn

from familiar setting and re-contextualised. Caught in this

void, only the visual potency of the painted surface can al

lay fear. But its lure and intrigue can only keep us hovering around the points of irresolution. The strength of this work

lies in an ability to tease and frustrate expectation at every

point. It is as if wave upon wave of potential meaning will

retreat slowly to expose the liminal. It is as if an aesthetics

of Belfast can only be grasped by working through the visual

detritus of the political landscape. Each set of work promises polemic whilst simultaneously

voiding one. Intrigue, lure and irresolution draw the en

counter with paint to a richer terrain of understanding. Merit lies in an

ability to disrupt conventionalised repre

sentations of present conflict. The value of painting then,

with regard to an understanding of political conflict, would

seem to lie in its ability to stimulate a renewed awareness of

the rhetorical roots of existing belief. The better works reg ister the need for a shrewd historical awareness of the pit falls dogging present understanding. The real task for criti

cism though lies in connecting this mode of enquiry to the

existing political debate.

Mickey Donnelly's 'Che (Variation)'

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