Miriam de Búrca
Do Not Touch When the Fire is Lit
November 26th – December 19th 2008

Private View: Tuesday 25th November

the third space is pleased to present an exhibition by Miriam de Búrca, combining drawing and video, Do Not Touch When the Fire is Lit explores de Búrca’s ongoing investigation into the psycho geographic dynamics of partitioned Belfast. The drawings are studies of plants and details taken from urban land that has become disused and ‘re-ruralised’ thanks to the inertia of a territorial interface. The plants are common weeds, ‘native aliens’ that grow indiscriminately, hardened to the hostile waste grounds. Generally considered an ugly, unwelcome nuisance, de Búrca on the other hand admires their quiet determination to recolonise the land and wishes to throw light on their symbolic worth.

Juxtaposing the close scrutiny of the drawings, I ♥ Belfast (2008) is a film about two people driving from one end of Belfast to the other. It is comprised of several short chapters each set in a different location en route. At first glance the film presents Belfast stereotypically, in a way one would expect a stranger to read the city. But the clichés are undermined by the uncertainties, paradoxes and irony reflected in the travellers’ experience of their journey. Judging by their commentary they are outsiders. Their conversation could be interpreted as being both naïve and painfully true as they make observations during their tour, attempting to comprehend what it is they see.

Miriam de Búrca lives and works in Belfast and is currently undertaking a practice-based PhD at the University of Ulster.

For information and additional images please contact; Hugh Mulholland on 0044 (0) 2890 237757 or hugh@thethirdspacegallery.com
 
the third space, suite 11&12, Scottish Mutual Building,16 Donegall Square South, Belfast BT1 5JA
 
Gallery Opening Hours – Monday – Friday 11am – 5pm, Closed 1pm – 2pm, Saturday by Appointment