NO! 1968 — Dameon Priestly

1968 was a year of refusal. Across Northern Ireland, Paris, the United States and Vietnam, demands for civil rights, opposition to war and challenges to established authority repeatedly collided with power. In NO! 1968, Dameon Priestly returns to the political and visual language of that turbulent year. Through collage and paint, image, text, colour and surface are brought together: imagery is cropped, repeated and obscured, while words including DEMOCRACY, LIBERTÉ, ONE MAN ONE VOTE and THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING become integral to the compositions. The history also has a personal connection. Priestly's grandfather took part in the People's Democracy march in Belfast in 1968, while his parents and extended family participated in civil rights marches and protests against the Vietnam War. The exhibition explores the uneasy distance between political ideals and lived reality, and between historical events and the stories subsequently told about them. The events belong to 1968. The works do not allow them to remain there. Read more about the exhibition here Opening times Monday: 11.30am–6pm Tuesday–Thursday: 10.30am–6pm Friday: 11.30am–6pm Saturday: 10.30am–2.30pm