Across and In-Between

Across and In–Between was presented as a world premier at the Ulster Museum, Belfast as part of 14-18 NOW and the Belfast International Arts Festival. Created in collaboration with communities in Ireland from both sides of the border, Across and In–Between explores the profound impact the border has on the lives of people who live there. The project is in two parts, The Yellow Line and the Border People’s Parliament, deeply engaging border communities and over 300 residents in collaboration to create an artwork that stirs public conversation.

Borders have profound impacts on the lives of people who live on or near them. Some borders, such as the one dividing Northern Ireland from the Republic, run through lakes, roads and farmland. The Partition of Ireland dates from the end of the First World War. After the Easter Rising of 1916 and the assertion of independence by Sinn Fein in 1918, a devastating civil war broke out following the division of Ireland into north and south. The consequences of partition are still felt today.

Suzanne Lacy investigated how the border frames identity and intervenes in the routine of everyday life. For this commission, she co-created with residents a series of localised gatherings and individual musings on visible and invisible borders. A three–screen film projection, The Yellow Line, was made with participants including farmers, horse–owners, scouts, hikers and villagers from communities across the Fermanagh, Donegal, Leitrim, Cavan and Monaghan border–line. For this presentation it was projected upon the front of the Ulster Museum building each evening from 6.00pm to 9.00pm. It was accompanied by a temporary exhibition featuring documentary interviews and the opportunity to contribute to the conversation about the Border People’s Parliament.

Highlighting the wit and cleverness of border life in the face of political pressures, this participatory artwork focuses on the power of play in creatively responding to complex issues. Suzanne Lacy commented, “Our project draws those who live along the often–invisible boundaries between countries into a conversation—metaphoric and literal – on personal and symbolic meanings of this border and by extension all such borders drawn by political forces. The artwork explores inverse paradigms: visible and invisible, official and unofficial, rural and urban, the real border and imagined ones. For a brief time, we suggest there is a unique in–between identity for those situated between two countries – a border people – and through playful acts we explore this liminal identity.”

For the second part of the project participants in The Yellow Line were invited to a private event in Stormont’s Parliament Buildings during Belfast International Arts Festival. They celebrated their involvement in making The Yellow Line and were part of the project’s final performance: a border people’s parliament, a space where border voices were able to consider matters of global political significance that are also, to them, intensely local.

About the artist
Suzanne Lacy is a celebrated pioneer of social practice, a form of art that engages the public in collaborative projects on social issues such as class, race and gender equity. Her installations, videos, and performances deal with sexual violence, rural and urban poverty, incarceration, labor and aging. Lacy’s large-scale projects span the globe, including England, Colombia, Ecuador, Spain, Ireland and the U.S.

In 2019 she had a career retrospective at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and at Yerba Buena Art Center. Her work has been reviewed in major periodicals and books and she exhibits in museums across the world. Also known for her writing, Lacy edited Mapping the Terrain: New Genre Public Art and authored Leaving Art: Writings on Performance, Politics, and Publics, 1974-2007. She is a professor at the Roski School of Art and Design at the University of Southern California and a resident artist at 18th Street Arts Center.

Co-commissioned by 14-18 NOW and Belfast International Festival