Exhibition by fiddle player and artist Susan Hughes with video, sculpture and installation, and a stage for ad-hoc Fleadh performances, on traditional Irish music, song and dance.
Susan Hughes brings A Feeling in the Blood to The MAC this Saturday, 17 October. It's an exhibition that works across video, sculpture and installation, and it opens up right in the middle of Belfast Trad Fest and Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann, so there's plenty of traditional music floating around the city this weekend.
Hughes is a Belfast-based artist and a fiddle player, and the whole thing grew out of conversations she had with musicians, dancers, singers, researchers and archivists across Ireland about the world of Irish music, song and dance. It's presented as a fluid, participatory and collaborative space rather than a static display: it includes objects loaned by members of the public who responded to a call for artefacts and belongings, each carrying a history of personal experience with traditional Irish music. There's also a purpose-built stage that gets activated by ad-hoc performances from visiting Fleadh musicians, running alongside a curated programme of performances.
The title comes from a 1953 archival recording of fiddle player Néillidh Boyle of Dungloe, Co. Donegal. He was describing a particular way of playing, saying: 'If you notice every note seems to have a sad, a crying effect. That note has to be embellished. It's done with a slight grace note which can't be seen with the movement of the fingers. It's done with a feeling in the blood.' That's the thread the whole exhibition pulls on — the things about the music that can't be written down or seen, but are felt and passed on.
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It's at The MAC on Saturday 17 October, coinciding with Belfast Trad Fest and Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann.
