Belfast Board Education Library
On Sunday afternoon last, I visited The Candahar and was somewhat surprised to have an identical conversation with the artist behind the project, Theo Sims, as I had ten years ago with the owner of an Irish themed pub, who I worked for. Both conversations involved the same story about a man who enters the bar and sighs to the male telling the story how glad he is to have found this place and how it reminds him of home or how “at home” in it he feels. It has a kind of heroic “come here to me, sniff me familiar armpit, look at this wallpaper and be well again,” offering the constructor a moment to revel in his achievement and feel like he’s affected a fellow man’s life.
More startling is why would either man want to be reassured that a man feels “at home” in what amounts to a faux environment and both might consider the wider implications of why a man on a street is entering a place in order to feel at home in an entirely different country. What does it say about the place he’s living in? And isn’t that a much more interesting thing to explore. (The man uncomfortable, rather than comfortable)
The Candahar is described self-importantly as a sculpture, part theatrical performance and all kinds of superfluous adjectives (add your own) that curators love to serve up. The artist has reconstructed an identical (or so we are told) version of a “beloved” but defunct pub in Belfast. Though in actual fact it’s more like the corner of a pub when you sit in it. The artist attempts to provoke questions about authenticity.
Or does he?
He appears compelled to share some authentic nugget of Belfast (or His Belfast) with us, (to prompt us to burst into conversation on it?) which in media interviews he insists doesn’t have a trace of a shamrock. This being a badge of honour. The invocation of a shamrock and the distinction that it doesn’t contain any immediately sets bells clanging. He’s possibly contrasting his “offered art experience” with that of the now ubiquitous theme-park Irish pub. Curiously though like the theme-park pub, his art exhibit “would not work in Ireland” and is designed for a North American audience.
The artist’s choice of a pub to give us a mind-expanding experience on our ideas of Belfast is curious. Why didn’t he reconstruct an identical corner of the Linenhall library or his local laundrette, or even, at a push, a shop.
Let’s examine that starting point. Let’s acknowledge that the choice of a pub further contributes to the notion that the Irish (and now add Belfast and Northern Ireland) are really great at drinking, and experts at creating places to drink and little else. Drink’s all we ever think about, what we do best and so now we’ll immortalize it in art. The final spot left where we might have hoped to have an alternative.
Why do I keep using the word Irish, when the artist hasn’t promised Ireland, he’s said Belfast. (Northern Ireland) The problem is the literature around the exhibit online referred to it as “an Irish pub” and “an Irish public house”. So on the basis that this word has been disseminated around the installation in advance, and geographic ignorance, mean many people entering it, enter it as an Irish pub. Will the artist have the chance to educate everyone and defend this sloppy reference? Based on the scuds of people in there on Sunday it’s unlikely. That day he had to scrub the board outside that was advertising it as an “Irish Pub.”
And this is where the “installation” or “experience art” is problematic. Those hordes of people enter and drink and take pictures and leave with the same tired, dated ideas about a culture (whether mistaken or otherwise for the wrong culture) that does not need this perpetrated any further. It implicates the accented people who live here with such stereotypes and means we continue to face inquiries about our relationship to alcohol and it’s extremely tedious to be on the receiving end of it. It actually takes us all back a generation to the kinds of “thick paddy” caricatures our parents and we, in earshot, endured. The stereotypes that have consistently framed our culture.
Then there’s the proffering of the pub construct as inviting. It’s described in the literature, which is prone to revision, as a place to enjoy a quiet pint, enjoy a pint or two. So snug. Except that there was nothing quiet about it when I visited, the place was over run with people, drenched in flags, all gasping it seemed for the same experience they’d get at the theme park pubs around town. Project Candahar may offer something else, but there’s little evidence of it crossing the trapeze of a psychological border. Pubs aren’t only places of quiet retreat, they’re places where lives get destroyed, lives that are lived in them rather than at the kitchen table. (Read Nuala O’Faolain describing Flann O’Brien pissing against the bar.) If anything this further indulges a masculine romance of the pub (cosy, me and my pint) that is so tired, it’s positively snoring.
I recall a film, Coming Home, made by a Northern Irish filmmaker Moira Sweeney about her travels and I recall some images and descriptions of Kilburn and her voiceover against the stark pub images were a sardonic “some craic”. An acknowledgement that along with the money sunk into them, pubs are places where for the Irish (historically especially) abject loneliness is and was deposited.
The conversation.
Much of the premise of this art installation pivots around the conversation the takes place in it. (During which the punters are supposedly coming out of the shadows as far as their education on Belfast? There seemed to be a great deal of goofy photo-snapping at the bar and whisky-tasting and little else when I was in there) The idea being the only authentic thing taking place in the bar is “the conversation”.
The conversation has become this irritating hashtag that seems to resolve any need for critical examination of what’s actually taking place. As long as it’s about “the conversation” then it has value. “the conversation” is its own rhetoric and artists are increasingly forced to become “a conversation” themselves. (This notion of the “exotic” and a handy gathering spot appears to relieve this piece of critique.)
The idea that the only authentic thing taking place in the bar is the “conversation” brings me to another aspect that perturbs me: on a civic level what does it say about us if our route to authentic conversation is a fake corner of no longer existing Belfast pub on the 3rd floor of a building on Granville Island at a cost of 5-10 dollars entry. Why have we to borrow an environment to stimulate authentic conversation? And why should this trigger for authentic conversation be placed in such an irrelevant context, at a time that demands civic relevance.
Whether they admit it or not the “Irish pub” or “Belfast pub” has currency that other installations would not. It’s this very currency that has droves of people flocking to it. At a time when we should be pushing out as far possible (given this time feels like a wake for the arts in BC) I’m disappointed to see seduction by such currency. Having worked in Belfast several times I am amazed to see people settle for such a dated environment and limited idea of the place. Words being thrown around in the media include “pure Belfast”… well which Belfast? Like any city, there are many.
Apparently the more interesting programming (which includes no response from the people culturally implicated by the bar) takes place in the evenings. It was described as a “different place” at night with a “different crowd”. In order to complete my critique I would need to attend and see if this is in fact the case. But the matter that what takes place out the front of the box refuses to acknowledge the stereotypes generated by what’s in the box means the party and intellectual expansion is essentially taking place while bouncing up and down on someone else’s ribcage.
The two barmen (described as “unscripted performers) are not on the schedule to appear on the stage out front, they remain merely “in service” during their so called performances. I find this very strange.
The most interesting interaction in the bar when I was there took place around a sign hung during Rebecca Belmore’s opening night performance piece, during which (I was told) she transformed the bar into a Natives Only bar, creating what was described to me as “an incredible tension.” The sign reads “No Indian Served After Sundown.” Some people approached or alighted on the sign, remarked to themselves on it, took pictures of it or of themselves with it (one man stuck his thumb up beside it, then appeared to catch himself doing that). No one took the sign down. Mostly they smiled as they took pictures or found it “weird” that it was up there and some appeared physically repelled by the sign, moving quickly from it. I thought recording these interactions would in itself have been an interesting piece. On some level it made me wonder if it was the only aspect of the pub that the people coming in that afternoon could actively relate and respond to. Everything else they’d likely just exit with the same warm and misleading ideas about “Paddy pub utopia”.
Co-incidentally out on our streets these nights (and days) we are reminded that flag draped piss heads and binge drinkers are an international pain in the arse regardless of the flag or the city.
A brainstorming session with approximately 30 participants of the March 2009 Eat Local Celebration in Belfast, ME, was aimed at gathering information about what residents feel they need in the area to develop a secure local food system. Erica Buswell who is on the management team at the Belfast Co-op Store facilitated the session.
Belfast is the hotbed of Local Food Activity. We are doing things in isolated packets all around the State. How can we bring projects together and help to create a viable local food system. The following is a list of what we have for a local food system and what we need. It is not a complete list but is the beginning of trying to identify a just and secure local food system.
Pieces of the Food System We Have
(Participants of the session named farms and organizations that they had a connection with. Not all the pieces were named.)
Organizations
- Belfast Co-op (specializes in local food)
- Farmer’s Market
- Troy Howard Middle School Garden Project
- Crown of Maine Distributors
- Fiddler’s Green Grain Mill
- MOFGA
- Maine Farmland Trust
- Agriculture Extension Service
- Tanglewood
- Fedco
- Food For Maine’s Future
- Cooperative Maine
Grassroots Actions
- Local Foods Momentum in this Area
- Steady Supply of local food at times
- Value added
- Demand
- Pollinators
- Failure of a large corporate food structure (food recalls)
- New Farmer Generation
- Chrissy Fowler
- Belfast Co-op
- Support for Good Food Policy
- Channel 2 Belfast TV
- Belfast Free Library
- WERU
- Murray Carpenter (MPBN)
- Vermont as a Model
- Unity College
Farmers and Fisherfolk
- Meadowsweet Farm
- Teltane Farm
- Peacemeal Farm
- Chases Daily (restaurant and farm)
- Dilly Dally Farm
- Freedom Farm
- Little Garlic Girl Farm
- Village Farm
- Jan and Dean Anderson CSA
- Half Moon Farm
- Fisher Farm
- Sand Hill Farm
- Sewalls Orchard
- Gardiner’s Honey
- Heiwa Tofu
- Hope’s Edge
- After the Fall Farm
- Terra Optima
- Wee Bit Meat
- Caldwell’s meats and milk
- Oyster Creek Mushrooms
- Port Clyde Fisherman’s Co-operative
- Off’s Farm
- White’s Orchard Dairy
- Dickson’s Butter
- (There are many more)
Pieces of the Food System We Need and who we can look to for guidance:
Local Food School- Ag Vo Tech School
- Massachusetts has a model
- John Thurston at Troy Howard Middle School
- John Piotti at Maine Farmland Trust
Maple Syrup Cooperative
- Jennifer Hill of Cooperative Maine
Grains Year Round
- Mark Fulford
Another Sap Pail for local food in Belfast (The Compost Pile)
Fresh Greens Year Round
- Don White
- Elliot Coleman
- Half Moon Gardens
- Andre Bella (has a green house in Belfast that isn’t being used)
Winter Farmers
Collaborative Cooking
Community Root Cellar
Community Gardens
- Freddie La Port
- Marshall Mittnick
Home Gardens-Victory Gardens
- Jan and Dean Anderson
Community Canning/Processing
- MOFGA
- Extension Service
- Soup Kitchen could use canning and gleaning volunteers
Federal and State Support for Small Farmers
- MOFGA
- Food For Maine’s Future
- CDC
Affordable Farmland
Restaurant Support (labels for food when it is local)
- Sam Heyward
Outreach to Youth
- teachers
- MEA
- Belfast Co-op
- Other organizations
Internships & Apprenticeships Programs about local Food (Barter work for education)
- WOOFERS volunteer on farms around the world for room and board
- Farm link
Awareness about responsible consumption vs over consumption.
- Waste, climate change….the broad picture….the real cost of cheap food
- Composting City wide, Human manure
- Mark Dittrick (Waste Management Specialist)
- Vermont model
