Insight into the Other

Presented as part of an international exhibition exchange between the University Hall Gallery and Art & Art History Department at UMass Boston and the Golden Thread Gallery of Belfast

Curated by Sarah McAvera and Sam Toabe

About the exhibition:

Do we find insight into ourselves in the artworks that we experience? Do we use them as a prompt to confirm our own values? Or, do we use them as proof of “otherness?” Has the meaning of “the other” changed in the current political and social climate? Do we use the concept of “the other” as a means of maintaining the status quo?

The selection of artworks for Insight into the Other focuses on those whose meanings change according to the time and space they are shown in. All blur boundaries around what they are and what they appear to be, or could be, based on its relationship to the experience of the viewer and vice versa. Some works will be restaged for the first time in many years, shown in alternative presentations that provoke the viewer into being part of the work, leading them to question what they are seeing and experiencing. The multitude of alternate readings undermine the stability of the viewing process and our sense of self and sense of the “other.”

The selection of artworks for the exhibition will be drawn from the collection of the Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast’s leading contemporary visual art program. Located in the capital of Northern Ireland, their purpose is to present high quality artistic programs embracing the breadth of contemporary arts practices by world-class national and international artists, and to develop, support and champion contemporary Northern Irish artists.

This is the first international exhibition of its kind at the University Hall Gallery.

Image: Sharon Murphy, Interval (after Lucio Fontano), 2015