CULTURE & CONFLICT: LYELL DAVIES, CONOR MCGRADY, GARY NICKARD, KEVIN NOBLE, MICHAEL TIERNEY, PATTY WALLACE, FRANKIE QUINN

The Culture & Conflict Group is an ad-hoc committee of artists who have come together to address the current situation in the North of Ireland. As the final chapter of British withdrawal from its last vestige of empire is played out in the North of Ireland, a transition from armed combat toward political engagement has occurred. The conflict between Britain and Ireland has always involved a struggle for the hearts and minds of public opinion with art functioning as a primary contested space. Art plays such a central role because it is employed as a key instrument of persuasion, for, as Pablo Picasso stated to Simone Tery in 1945; "Art is not made to decorate apartments, it is an offensive and defensive instrument of war against the enemy." This installation will explore these ideas.