A LOCAL artist’s painting depicting the two predominant cultures in Northern Ireland will be displayed at the Tower Museum to symbolise the values of Community Relations and Cultural Awareness Week.Polyrhythm, by Derry’s Kevin Horgan, shows Bodhran and Lambeg drummers playing side by side in front of Derry’s walls.
Community Relations and Cultural Awareness Week will take place from September 18th until September 24th and aims to engage with the public and urge them to consider and embrace the growing cultural diversity that exists in our local community.
Derry City and Strabane District Council’s Good Relations team are organising a number of special events during the week and Good Relations Officer at Council, Angela Askin, noted the ‘Polyrhythm’ art work was a particularly fitting representation of this year’s theme of ‘Safe Space: Shared Place’.
“Kevin Horgan’s image of two musicians from diverse traditions but playing together to create one tune is a powerful one and promotes the wider idea that different cultures can co-exist in safe and shared spaces.” she noted.
“Community Relations and Cultural Awareness Week is an opportunity to celebrate all aspects of our culture and heritage, to promote cultural diversity and help tackle sectarianism and racism.
“It provides a platform for organisations and groups from the community and voluntary sectors, arts, culture, sport, education to showcase innovative approaches to good relations and building a united and shared community.”
Roisin Doherty, Curator at the Tower Museum, said they were delighted to have this opportunity to display the painting
“On behalf of the Tower Museum we would like to thank Kevin Horgan for lending the painting to us,” she said.
“We are delighted that this piece allows us to promote the values of shared space and respect for difference that are central to Community Relations and Cultural Awareness Week. “Art can play a key role in engaging the public and I would urge everyone to come along and view this piece for themselves.”
Kevin added: “The Polyrhythm painting is my personification of the two predominant cultures that reside in the North of the Island of Ireland,” he explained. “The two characters are based on stereotypes that one culture would have about the other.
“Both sides of the community have strong feelings towards the other but it is undeniable that certain elements of both sides are defined by their counterparts and that it could be said that one does not exist without the other.
“I chose Polyrhythm as a title as I think it is a good analogy of my experience of the two cultures that exist here in Derry and Northern Ireland. Both live together on this small bit of land playing two rhythms to the same tune, take away one rhythm and there is no ‘Polyrhythm’.
More information on Community Relations and Cultural Awareness Week is available at www.derrystrabane.com/goodrelations.
