Coming Out for Air – Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival 2021, Belfast.

This performance was commissioned by  Bbeyond as part of their participation in  Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival. The location for the work was the Francis Anderson Calder Memorial Fountain which drew my attention when looking for a site in the area. Calder (1787 – 1855) founded the  Belfast Society for prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 1836 and was responsible for  water troughs being installed in the streets for animals whose services were required en route to the busy port.  The inscription, from Proverbs 12:10, caught my attention – “A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast”. The word ‘beast’ immediately made me think of ‘body’ and so the performance combined aspects of maintenance, cleaning and healing of both fountain and self.

Thanks to Rainer Pagel for the photos.