McClelland, Andrew
(2017)
REVIEW:
The Great Reimagining: Public Art, Urban Space and the Symbolic Landscapes
of a ‘New’ Northern Ireland (Bree T. Hocking: Berghahn, 2015).
Irish Journal of Arts Management and Cultural Policy, 4.
pp. 59-62.
ISSN 2009-6208
Abstract
The Great Reimagining: Public Art, Urban Space and the Symbolic Landscapes of a ‘New’
Northern Ireland is written by Bree T. Hocking, a Research Associate at the Open University
with a background in exploring the intersection of art, spatial politics and society. This book
critically investigates the global and local processes shaping public spaces in the two largest
cities of ‘post-conflict’ Northern Ireland: Belfast and Derry. A particular emphasis is placed
on interrogating selected state-financed public art commissions, questioning their intended
impact, the sometimes contested and unforeseen community responses, and the insights
derived as to the vision of citizenship the State is seeking to engender in the ‘new symbolic
landscapes’ of Northern Ireland (p. 4). In essence, the study explores the dissonance and
contradictions that typically manifest in the spatial restructuring of urban space, particularly
where public art is mobilised by policymakers and funding bodies as a means of promoting
local reconciliation and shared space while simultaneously calibrated to attract global investment
capital and ‘consumer-tourists’. To this end, the author posits a conceptual framework
for the analysis of official discourses shaping such ‘transitional space’ and asserts its wider
applicability to other post-conflict and post-industrial societies.
| Item Type: |
Article
|
| Keywords: |
Public Art; Urban Space; Northern Ireland; book review; spatial politics; society; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Institutes > Maynooth University Social Sciences Institute, MUSSI |
| Item ID: |
9326 |
| Depositing User: |
Andrew McClelland
|
| Date Deposited: |
04 Apr 2018 15:05 |
| Journal or Publication Title: |
Irish Journal of Arts Management and Cultural Policy |
| Publisher: |
University of Limerick, Irish World Academy of Music and Dance |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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