Clúdach: Cover

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This year's covers have featured artistic responses to the urban environment, from artists associated with the Belfast Print Workshop—one of the key institutions in the Northern art scene. Residencies, exhibitions, and courses for both the general public and for experienced printmakers all feature in the Workshop's ongoing contributions to the artistic life of the city and region. Readers may wish to visit the Workshop's impressive web site at http://bpw.org.uk/home/.

"Belfast Shadows" is a 2007 work by artist Ben Allen, b. 1962 in County Antrim. It is a photo-intaglio print that measures 22.5 x 15 cm. Like many of Allen's prints, it presents a familiar landmark, Belfast City Hall, in the distant space; unlike many of Allen's works that render the city in high color, the darkness of this image calls to mind the monochromatic palate of a woodcut. The scene, however, is edgily contemporary, and exists in an odd equilibrium; even as we see the anonymous human shapes moving away from us, the viewer can readily feel the stream of light and shadow coming near. The deliberate blurring of the image in a way that suggests movement inevitably evokes the photorealistic paintings of Gerhard Richter. Note, too, that the work—which at one level, actually resembles a Rorshasch Test—invites allusions to iconic pop culture imagery as diverse as evangelical renderings of the Rapture and the gunfight at OK Corral. An artist who experiments in many media, Allen also works in abstract painting, collage, video art, and sculpture. Allen studied BA Fine Art Painting at the University of Ulster in Belfast and continued his training with an MA in Environmental Media at the Royal College of Art in London.

We thank the artist, as well as the staff of the Workshop, and especially director Tara Vallely, for kind assistance in providing this image.