Hands of History

Overview

Shortly after the signing of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, the artist Raymond Watson managed to persuade the Northern Irish political leaders involved in negotiating the Agreement (some of whom are now deceased) to allow him to take a cast of their hands, which he later cast in bronze to create a unique sculpture entitled Hands of History.

Raymond‘s Hands of History is an important, significant and truly unique artwork that captures a momentous and historic event in Irish history.

For the twentieth anniversary of Good Friday, Raymond created new art work and hand casts. This work is accompanied by a re-enactment of the original Good Friday exhibition. The original hands are shown alongside additional new Hands of those political and international figures who have been instrumental in helping to build the peace over the last twenty years.

Hands cast for original Good Friday Agreement sculpture include those of: Gerry Adams, Sinn Féin; Malachi Curran, Northern Ireland Labour Party; David Ervine, Progressive Unionist Party; John Hume, Social Democratic and Labour Party; Gary McMichael, Ulster Democratic Party; Monica McWilliams, Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition; Mo Mowlam, Northern Ireland Secretary of State, UK Government; Seán Neeson, Alliance Party; David Trimble, Ulster Unionist Party.

Of the +20 new hands casts, the selection that are presented in this exhibition include: Bertie Ahern, Irish Taoiseach; David Andrews, Irish Minister of Foreign Affairs; Tony Blair, British Prime Minister; Bernie McGuinness, widow of Martin McGuinness; Lord Chris Patten, Chair of Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland.

The bronze hands for the original Good Friday sculpture and the new hands are mounted on bases cut from Mourne Granite, the same material that forms the steps to Stormont Parliament Buildings in Belfast. The use of a granite stone reflects the fact that in ancient times there was a sense of immense power and permanency about a large rough shaped rock. In mythology, and in the contemporary era, people, chieftains and monarchs touched or sat on a stone to pledge a better future.

This is an ongoing project which was later shown in Belfast at the Golden Thread Gallery, with the addition of further bronze casts and at the Victoria Gallery and Museum, Liverpool.

Each of the exhibitions provides an opportunity for those who lived threw the troubles to meet and discuss the future as the sculpture provides a solid example of how the peacebuilders reached across to create a new peaceful society for everyone.

This project sought to have a wide and lasting impact across a number of significant areas:

1. To have an impact upon the knowledge of art as a form of conflict recognition;
2. To mobilise art as a catalyst for thought provoking discussions that relate to political and communal struggles and the relevance of those struggles to other societies and audiences;
3. To have impact through engaging non-artist scholars, conflict transformation practitioners and new audiences with the concepts of art for conflict transformation;
4. To examine the notion of cultural confinement, which is a growing phenomenon, through art;
5. To present art as a means to promote tolerance and relational change between communities in conflict and in particular speak to audiences unfamiliar with these practices of art as conflict recognition and resolution;
6. To highlight how such interdisciplinary engagement benefits both arts practice and social science approaches to conflict transformation through sharing learning and the promotion of respective methods;
7. To recognise the 20th anniversary of peace-building in Northern Ireland and the figurative and material practices therein and their relevance to other sites of conflict and social injustice.

The project acted as a catalyst for conversations between people who might otherwise not have met , due to their backgrounds, interests and where they lived. The artworks and the gallery provide a “safe” space where politics, history and culture could be talked about.

Peace related themes

Commemoration and Remembrance,Conflicted Histories

Funders

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT)