A while back I was invited to be part of a show in The Shed, Galway by PS2 Gallery Belfast. It was a really interesting opportunity to see how work travels and how it changes. I exhibited the remnants of the Come let me lighten your (ironing) load. Originally I had ironed for free in the PS2 Gallery for a week.
This time I was unable to repeat the action and instead gave a talk about my practice during the exhibition. It was great to put together something for an undefined audience.
proposal for The Lyric
I was invited as part of a team to propose a public work for the Lyric. I explored the unusual architecture of the Lyric and its similarities to some church buildings in Northern Ireland. The idea of theatre as spiritual building and what external signage could be used to explore the discussions going on within the building.
A tract to sum up the feeling of the project so far. The longer I stand the less answers I have but I find this a good position to be in. I Have also had a uniform made to distribute the tracts in. I will show this in my next post.
As always all comments wecome.
How to distribute leaflets like mine amidst what seem like endless flag protests?
I have often been asked what I am doing but never have I felt the backdrop of my work as charged as it is now. During the exhibition in PS2 the flag protests began and even in the relative shelter of the gallery the juxtaposition felt very strange to me.
I have decided to take a break from distributing the tracts for a time and spend this time developing their content further.
Here is a link to a guardian article discussing secular carol services printed a few days after our own.
Led by John D’arcy we sang lots of songs celebrating christmas that did not mention Religion. This may sound contradictory and indeed on sending out the invites one person declined saying you can’t have Christmas without Jesus. We put this to the test, I did not do any fancy introductions it was not important to me who believed what but that we all wanted to sing together and that we recognised enough of the songs to make this possible.
We sang for a few hours and got plenty of strange looks from those passing the gallery but it really put me in the christmas spirit – for me this means spending time with family and friends, eating too much and relaxing.
Prayers for secular people.
Since starting this project I have had several moments of doubt when I find myself thinking the support of a higher purpose that is recognised by many others would be a lovely comfort. There are many artists working in Belfast but art does not always lend itself to communal activities in the same way religion does.
I was thinking of a prayer circle and the comfort of knowing others have you in their thoughts, how could this work for a secular group – is there any desire for this? For those of you that have read along with the project you will be aware that I am borrowing the things I miss since leaving church and religion and testing how they function without their foundation of religious belief.
I was discussing today with a friend about Mandalas and how she is using them for an art project. I am slowly thinking around how what we borrow is changed and how art is changed by this borrowing.
Today was the quietest day so far and again a huge reminder how art often survives with a support network. It is a fragile belief and a lonely one but I am preparing for the secular singing on the 15th December and it is this that keeps me going. 
Belfast has a strong art crowd that go to regular openings but the wider public do not seem to often filter through to the smaller galleries. In thinking of a church as a support network art has some parallels. Your art friends will usually attend your exhibition or friends that work in town have called in when passing. I have said before about tract giving as being self sustaining as often Christians take the tracts from those giving them in solidarity of faith and the similarity if exhibitions are predominantly attended by artists. Is it critical that those outside your field recognise your work?
Open 11-3
5 visitors today and I would like to write about 2 of them. First was an older man who knocked on the window but wouldn’t come in he just shouted “keep up the good work!” I wonder what work he wanted me to keep up whether he knows the space is an art gallery and was telling me to keep going as there where no people in the gallery or whether he recognised the space as a church and was telling me to keep going as I had no followers.
The other visitor came in to ask when my next session was, again I found myself questioning exactly what I am offering as there are no clear boundaries. I explained the space as an art gallery and the work but after an expectation of religious guidance I think he found my hope in art rather empty.
Juliemillerart Blog 