Gareth in Belfast

This exhibition is a portrait of a lifelong friendship, documented with digital and analogue photography; Super 8 film loops and audio recordings - words and perspectives from Gareth, captured against varied Belfast backdrops.
The subject is Gareth, a 46 year old Belfast native, who has been a friend of filmmaker and artist Vincent Kinnaird since the age of 4.
This is a portrait of a person, who is neither a star nor a model, but an everyday bloke and a best friend.

Belfast is the backdrop of most images, documenting places like St George’s market, the City Hall, pubs and various other locations. Seen in this way, Gareth becomes all of us, captured in the type of picture that is familiar, and steeped in memories or associations.
Vincent Kinnaird creates a counter- representation to commercial and corporate photography and film, staging an alternative to the commoditisation of people to sell or advertise products.
In these times many people take numerous pictures and films everyday with their mobile phones, leaving a digital trail of their daily life. But what meaning, if any, do the pictures and films have? And, is it possible to find poetry in the everyday?
With its gritty realism and experimental adventure, here is a search for that poetry.

Vincent Kinnaird writes:
My key quest is to capture image and sound as naturally as possible, but also with the intent of making people think. Why this photo? Why that framing? Why is Gareth doing that? Who is he with? What would I do if I were there?
It's also about Belfast, as I see it. As Gareth sees it too. As I see him in relation to people, places and other things around him.
As part of the research and development of the final piece I have also gone back to places and images of Gareth taken between 1990 and present day. The purpose here is to re-examine place and the times of a developing city. Some of these archive images and films appear in the final exhibition. Although different in style and saturation, they also are a key influence on the new images and sounds displayed in PS².

Vincent Kinnaird is a prize-winning filmmaker whose drama and documentary films have reached notable film-festivals worldwide and have been broadcast on RTÉ, BBC, Channel 4 and throughout Europe.
For more information about Vincent Kinnaird see.