'Poppies' from Memory, Memorial Series (1996) Vanishing Futures (2015): Collective Histories of Northern Irish Art

'Poppies', Memory, Memorial series (1996) in Vanishing Futures: Collective Histories of Northern Irish art, (23rd October- 5th December 2015).

'Poppies' (1996) photograph from the Memory Memorial series was included in this group exhibition. This exhibition was the final instalment of the Collective Histories of Northern Irish Art, curated by Peter Richards. Richards has been set the task, which he has previously set the eleven invited curators to date, of sharing an insight into his lived experience and knowledge of Northern Irish Art. Through the instalment, Richards reflects on: a number of strands of thought around history and mediation; artists and artworks; the moments and things, that have shaped his understanding of Art in the North of Ireland. The exhibition features works from the late 1970’s through to the present day and celebrate a sense of world-weary déjà vu.

The exhibition predominantly consists of works selected from the Golden Thread Gallery’s would-be permanent collection. With works, where possible being shown in the gallery as they have been shown before. Though the choice of works exhibited have not been completely restricted to works that have previously been shown in or by the Golden Thread Gallery.

Poppies is a large scale photographic artwork (Scale) from the Memory, Memorial series (1996) In this project McIver explored individual’s experiences of war through first hand interviews with war veterans and photography.

The series explored the relationships between public memorial and private memory. It was also concerned with differences in perception: between those who have experienced events such as war at first hand and those, like myself, who can only imagine what it was like through the media, other’s recollections and archival material.

Artists included in this exhibition: Tom Bevan; Charlie Bosanquet; Sinead Breathnach-Cashell; Lorraine Burrell; Lisa Byrne; Ursula Burke; Miriam de Búrca; Ian Charlesworth; Colin Darke; Maurice Doherty; John Duncan; Factotum; Ciara Finnegan; Graham Gingles; Gerry Gleason; Carol Graham; Michael Hanna; Phil Hession; Tony Hill; Allan Hughes; Johanna Leach; Terry Loane; Lisa Malone; Shiro Masuyama; Michael Minnis; Locky Morris; Susan MacWilliam; Connor McFeely; Deirdre McKenna; Mary McIntyre; Moira McIver; William McKeown; Tonya McMullan; Philip Napier; Aisling O’Beirn; Ciaran Ó Dochartaigh; Sinead O’Donnell; Brendan O’Neill; Jack Pakenham; Paul Seawright; Gary Shaw; Dan Shipsides; Theo Sims; Victor Sloan; Peter Spiers; and Una Walker, Alastair Wilson;