Sanctuary Space – Glenbank Cross Community Garden

The Sanctuary Space was the result of a participatory Arts Council of NI Award, enabling the creation of positive mirrored words for the old Victorian walled garden at Glenbank Cross Community Garden. The garden has been transformed over the past few years by local volunteers, mainly older residents, who have created their own sanctuary space. Many of the volunteers have their own mental health and wellbeing issues and with the help of a local health trust support worker they have addressed many of these issues through gardening and the arts and creativity programme I delivered for them. Using positive words and mirrored glass as a metaphor for the reflection of the ‘man or woman in the mirror’ the letters were laser cut by local tradesmen and finished by myself and the group. I chose the font Times New Roman to keep with the theme of the old garden and to create a classic timeless feel, in keeping with the tranquil qualities of the Sanctuary Space.

2020/21

Processions

New link for all Processions images. Working with the Kilcooley, Ards and North Down Womens Group, Golden Thread Gallery, 1418Now and Artichoke. UK wide 100th celebration of women receiving the partial vote. The work toured across the UK as part of the programme as well as being a key part of the Belfast parade.

 

Woodvale Planning For Real

North Belfast

Finally able to release Woodvale- Planning for Real images of the redevelopment of this North Belfast interface/peace wall. Commissioned by the Housing Executive NI. See link for all images and initial designs. Woodvale Planning For Real

 

 

Socially Engaged

This gallery contains 31 photos.

Over the past 4 years I have been working on various socially engaged projects including community consultation with the Woodvale Community of North Belfast on their public realm project addressing an interface/peace wall, was commissioned by the Golden Thread Gallery … Continue reading →

20/20 Art In The Eastside

Art in The Eastside is the concept of Creative Exchange Artists’ Studios, who have delivered five billboard projects since 2009. It is a vibrant outdoor art project and the only one of its kind to be delivered in Northern Ireland.The project presents artists’ work in a high profile setting and is a key visual arts event in the Eastside Arts Festival 2016 and Belfast’s calendar of visual arts events. The project creates an outdoor gallery bringing art to the people right on their own doorstep adding a splash of colour to the streets of East Belfast.

For Creative Exchange’s anniversary event, 20 original artworks from renowned local, national and International artists were displayed on billboards across inner East Belfast, as a celebration of the artists who have been involved with Creative Exchange over the past 20 years.

My image, ‘Half True Shroud’  (Castlereagh Rd & Beersbridge Rd junction) continues to explores the tension and hypocrisy of nostalgia and memory, juxtaposed with the reality of a situation remembered.  Asking the audience to tell the story behind a captured video still, I give them one pointer –  all story’s are only half true – the rest is necessary.

The original video, based on a true story, deals with the narrator hiding behind her make-up, while the subject of the story, hides behind alcohol.

Watch the full video. Duration 2 minutes, 20 seconds – Still Standing There – Half True

Participating artists – Gerry Gleason, Shiro Masuyama, Victor Sloan, Peter Richards, Jill Quigley, Colin Darke, Martin Boyle, Emmanuele Panzarini, Ted Pim, Colin McGookin, Zan Dani, Deirdre Robb, Paul Moore, Susan Gorsen, Lesley Cherry, Stephen Millar, RayDuncan,  George Robb, Tom Phanerstill and David Fox

20/20 Art in the Eastside Billboard

Still Standing There, Video Still

©Lesley Cherry 2016

20/20 Exhibition

Location: Engine Room, Portview Trade Centre, 310 Newtownards Road, BT4 1HE

August 11th to 27th 2016

The 20/20 exhibition was one of 5 high profile events organised by Creative Exchange studios to celebrate their 20th anniversary.  The show was curated by Sarah McAvera and several works were created specifically for the Engine Room, a church like, brightly lit space, at Portview Trade Centre, home of the studio collective.  My installation, “Only Half The Story Is True, The Rest Is Necessary”used the large Victorian windows to highlight the transparency of stories and the hypocrisy in how we retell them.  The use of paper doilies, references the twitching lace curtains, which the story teller – whoever it may be- often hides behind.

 Curator Sarah McAvera explains:

“ Under the same sky diversity manages to thrive’ is a means to describe the various different practices of the studio members housed at Creative Exchange. The artists in this exhibition are not all working under one narrative but each piece of work on show is representative of each artist’s current concerns and medium.”

 

©Lesley Cherry2016

Repeat Patterns Golden Thread Gallery

Click Repeat Patterns for more imagery and video links from my solo exhibition at the Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast.

Golden Thread Gallery Press Release – Repeat Patterns sees Cherry using wallpaper and text, which are recurring materials and themes in her practice. She uses these materials as decorative compositions in which to record and hide,  handwritten stories: some of the stories are true; some come from news reports or reality television. The wallpaper is a metaphor for how pattern is embedded in our everyday routines and actions. The domestic covering is often a design based in nature, displaced and used in an interior space. We can change the wallpaper, but does the pattern ever really change within our lives? This question is core to Cherry’s investigations. Decorative frames, children’s toys and household items are used to cement these themes with the things of everyday life found within a domestic setting. They become sites for the hidden stories she has recorded. Using video, she captures items in the process of being made and amended as a way of understanding the repeat nature of our actions, exposing rhythms within our unconscious behaviours and actions. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Golden Thread Gallery and Scope New York

Repeat Patterns, opens at the Golden Thread Gallery Belfast, on Thursday 5th February 2015 and continues until the 28th of the month.  I will also be holding an artists talk on the 19th of February between 1 and 2pm, discussing aspects of the exhibition, influences, resolutions and outcomes.

In March 2015, several pieces of my Perspex work will be on display at the Golden Thread Gallery stand at the Scope New York, Art Fair, between the 6 and 8th of the month.

Golden Thread Gallery Press Release – Repeat Patterns sees Cherry using wallpaper and text, which are recurring materials and themes in her practice. She uses these materials as decorative compositions in which to record and hide,  handwritten stories: some of the stories are true; some come from news reports or reality television. The wallpaper is a metaphor for how pattern is embedded in our everyday routines and actions. The domestic covering is often a design based in nature, displaced and used in an interior space. We can change the wallpaper, but does the pattern ever really change within our lives? This question is core to Cherry’s investigations. Decorative frames, children’s toys and household items are used to cement these themes with the things of everyday life found within a domestic setting. They become sites for the hidden stories she has recorded. Using video, she captures items in the process of being made and amended as a way of understanding the repeat nature of our actions, exposing rhythms within our unconscious behaviours and actions. 

Lesley Cherry studied at the University of Ulster, gaining her BA Hons in Fine & Applied Art and graduated from the Master of Fine Art course in 2011. She received the ACNI Artists Enhancement Award in 2014 and the ARCH Development Residency, Washington DC, in 2012. She has also been awarded several SIAP awards from the ACNI and was invited to attend the Erno Tolvaly Artists’ Residency, Hungary, in August 2014. She is currently based at Creative Exchange Artists’ Studios, Belfast.

 

Residencies & Commissions

New pages added charting the  Ernö Tolvaly Artists Residency Füle, Hungary, plus the CEASEFIRE/20 commission for the Ulster Bank Festival at Queens. Its been a busy few months…. Read more at Hungarian Residency and CEASEFIRE/20

 

Its All About Us

In 2012, the North Belfast Interface Network commissioned four artists to work closely with four communities in north Belfast, bringing some of the more discreet and unheard voices to the fore and creating artworks that are relevant to the stories, experiences and vision of the people they met along the way. Cherry, in conjunction with artists Phil Hession,   Lisa Malone and Zoë Murdoch worked in Ardoyne, Shankill, Antrim Road / New Lodge with assistance from Grace Women’s Development, Lower Shankill Community Association and Tar Isteach. The work was exhibited at the Golden Thread Gallery in February 2014. In addition to the final exhibition, 4 images were also made into art billboards, which were shown in the respective areas from which they were created. Cherry also projected her work at Portview Trade Centre in December 2013, as part of the International Curators visit to Belfast to coincide with the 2013 Turner Prize. To see images, video links and further information on the project and exhibition please click here Its All About Us