ALSO now running at Culturlann McAdam Ó Fiaich in Belfast is a solo exhibition by west Belfast-based artist and researcher Patrick Hickey.
Looking for a Home, a Place to call our Own, a Place where we can be Alone, is a series of paintings produced as a part of Hickey's practice-based PhD research at Ulster University, Belfast.
The exhibition explores queer Irish identity and masculinity through the exploration of the nude male figure in a fantasy version of the Irish landscape.
"Queer people have often been relegated to the margins and their histories have been erased," explains Hickey.
"Even up until recently, our rights have been denied on the island of Ireland. As a part of my research and for this exhibition, I wanted to bring forth the hidden figures, by creating a world where they can explore and exist without the limitations of Irish or Northern Irish cultural assumptions being placed upon them."
Hickey imagines this world as taking the form of a mysterious island of refuge inspired by Irish mythology, specifically the mythological island of Brasil (or Hy-Brasil). Said to be off the west coast of Ireland, Brasil has featured in myths and legends as far back as the 14th century.
Hickey's painting is directly inspired by the Irish landscape of sites around the west of Ireland and west Belfast, which he photographs and then uses as inspiration for inventing a fictionalised version of Ireland to paint and draw from.
:: More information at culturlann.ie
