About The Exhibition
Belfast Exposed is proud to present Street View: Nick Smith which features the project Fabric of Choice by artist Nick Smith. Nick Smith is a photographer, artist, writer and educator based in Belfast. The project, Fabric of Choice, is a collection of images and words illustrating the life of Arthur Denby Wilkinson.
Video link - Street View: Nick Smith
Arthur Denby Wilkinson lived a long and seemingly conventional life, one of a worker, father, grandfather and also that of a farmer and farm manager. He was also an accomplished ornithologist expert on both domestic and wild birds, interests which came to form the most significant parts of his life’s work.
"The part of his story that instigated this project was his resistance to being conscripted into the British army in the closing stages of World War 1. Thought his was reasonable well known to me, accessing his prison letters helped to fill out a picture of him beyond our memories, to where the mind of an 18-year-old is when they make such a profound decision about their life." - Nick Smith
Image & Archive Credits
Text © Nick Smith, 2020-2021.
Images © Nick Smith, Friends House Library & Archive London, Museum of English Rural Life Reading, The Smith family archive.
Street View
The award-winning 'Street View' provides a multimedia exhibition experience to increase the accessibility and visibility of photography on the streets of Belfast. Street View is a large digital window display, complimented with audio narratives, that showcases contemporary artwork by internationally renowned and local emerging photographers to an external audience on the streets of Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter.
Belfast Exposed believe photography is for everyone, it is accessible, meaningful and has the ability to tell stories, allowing us to create dialogue and reflect upon our history, inform our present and inspire a positive future. Street View is another opportunity to extend our vision beyond the confines of the gallery.
The Artists
Nick Smith
Nick Smith is a photographer, artist, writer and educator based in Belfast. He was born 1961 in Milford, Surrey, England. His practice as a photographer has included editorial briefs and frequent wanders outside of this and attempt to pull the medium apart, explore its margins in terms of frame, or how
frame is defined through montaging, time-based sequences and time elapse projects.
Acknowledgements
'Street View: Nick Smith' at Belfast Exposed is generously supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Belfast City Council.