Somebody turned to me and said: “It’s like when you see a gallery opening in an American film; it looks a bit like this.” We were three floors up, not quite a New York loft, rather a high-spec office block, with metallic flooring, industrial lighting, and whitewashed brick walls. Situated on Belfast’s main thoroughfare – and offering views over the city through floor-to-ceiling windows – the venue was buzzing on opening night with curators, artists, and potential collectors. On the walls, plinths, and floor was an impressive array of artworks by artists based in Northern Ireland. Yet, as they say, nobody had any ‘notions’ about themselves: prices started at just £10, with many pieces under £100, and I can’t remember the last time I saw Turner Prize-winning artists pouring the wine. This was ‘UPHOLD: New Collections’, the first physical exhibition by ‘UPHOLD’, a relatively new initiative by collectively-led art organisation, Household.
Household is run by independent curators Jane Butler, Ciara Hickey and Alissa Kleist. Their project, ‘UPHOLD’, emerged as the pandemic left artists suddenly without exhibition or residency opportunities. Taking inspiration from the Arts Council of Ireland (who funded several national institutions to buy contemporary art during the lockdowns), they began with ten artists, inviting them to showcase pre-existing work, available for sale, on a new online platform. Funding from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Belfast City Council allowed the project to expand, and new members were each paid an artist’s fee and a materials budget to create a new edition. There are currently 25 individual artists and two collectives. The not-for-profit model means that artists receive 80% of any subsequent sales, with the remaining 20% going back into the organisation to cover costs.
Alongside visual artists like Mark McGreevy, UPHOLD make a point of including those who tend to work in performance or installation (such as Array Collective or Michael Hanna), asking them to consider something commercial within their practice; there is a set of beer mats from Array’s The Druthaibs Ball, and Hanna’s Yellow Uh Oh, a handmade vacuum form. Others are encouraged to reimagine work in a reproducible format in a way that does not compromise their practice. For example, a Phillip McCrilly’s wall painting (originally shown in CCA Derry-Londonderry) is recreated as a series of limited-edition silkscreen prints; while Rachel Campbell-Palmer’s sculptural pieces are presented as scaled down versions of her larger works, using similar forms and materials.
The Household team want to grow a culture of collecting art in Northern Ireland and for every edition that is commissioned, they keep an artist’s proof, so that they are also building a collection. The website encourages visitors to think beyond “a simple domestic decoration” towards “art that is […] intriguing, provocative, relevant, compelling, beautiful…”. This is facilitated by a streamlined online purchasing process, offering framing where relevant, and detailed photography that not only showcases individual pieces but also envisages them in domestic settings. That being said, it’s not all ‘sell, sell, sell’ – artist profiles are provided with statements on individual pieces, making the website just as much a resource for curators.
The ‘UPHOLD: New Collections’ exhibition comprised primarily the new editions described above (currently there are 20), with each artist given free rein on how they chose to interpret the brief. For example, there were glitchy, patterned, knotted-wool pieces mounted on board from Grace McMurray with titles referring to grief and feeling out of one’s depth; a grid of 12 mini, abstract, layered canvases by Susan Connolly from her series ‘Traces of an activity 21’; an edition of digital prints and 3D-printed and Jesmonite sculptures by John Rainey, referencing antique Graeco-Roman sculpture and exploring how museums display, restore, and acquire such works; photographic pieces from Jan McCullough recording site-specific studio experiments (and strangely reminiscent of Las Meninas by Velázquez); or a series of custom-printed mugs by Jennifer Mehigan with textual references to sources like the Irish Queer Archive and Famine-era print media. Incidentally, Mehigan was one of two artists (along with Emma Wolf-Haugh) invited to respond to themes from the 2022 Outburst Queer Arts Festival.
Subtle curatorial decisions throughout were also a delight – such as the neon touches of reflective materials in Jill Quigley’s photographs being picked up in Susan Hughes’ screen-print employing, maritime high-visibility paint; or the grid pattern of a tablecloth in Thomas Wells’s installation interacting with a galvanised steel mesh flooring panel in work by Katie Watchorn – and in turn with the metallic floor of 35DP. The venue was on three-week loan from Haller-Clarke, a consultancy firm working with existing and new ‘good developers’, to value art in its capacity to introduce people to space and place. Aware of Household’s work and with similar aims and values, they knew it would be a good fit.
The plan for ‘UPHOLD’ is to add five new artists every six months, funding them to create more editions, and ultimately to continue to demonstrate the range and quality of work being produced in Northern Ireland while encouraging people to buy and collect. Another exhibition is planned for 2023.
Jonathan Brennan is a multidisciplinary artist based in Belfast.
jonathanbrennanart.com
‘UPHOLD’ is a not-for-profit online platform for selling and promoting work made by contemporary artists based or working in Northern Ireland.
upholdart.co.uk
35DP, 35 Donegall Place, Belfast.
3 – 20 November 2022
