Art in the City

Saturday was the first day in I can't remember how long when I
had nothing specific to do. I went down town with Francis to see an exhibition of press photography from Northern Ireland over the past 40 years. I was in a bad mood - the grey sky, the drizzling rain, the relentless dreariness of Summer 07.
"There's no fecking culture in this city. That fecking union complaining because 1% of a hospital budget is being spent on art. There are no decent galleries. A wet saturday afternoon and in the two years I've been living here this is the only exhibition I've actually wanted to see. How fucking depressing is this place."
We bumped into some artist type at the gallery who whined at Francis about the lack of a local arts programme on the BBC. Then he immediately disagreed with me when I said there weren't enough public art galleries. I shouldn't compare Belfast to Edinburgh because Edinburgh was much bigger. (It's not.)
Back in the car, Francis told me about one of this guy's materpieces. "It was this cross-community project up on the peace line where the lesbians live..." he began.
I can't remember the rest cos I just cracked up laughing.

Picture above: 'Uncontrolled Explosion' by Thomas McMullan from 'Out of the Darkness' at Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast