Public Art
Public art can help define an entire community's identity and reveal the unique character of a specific neighborhood.
Public art, by its presence alone, can heighten our awareness, transform a landscape or express community values, and for these reasons it can have the power, over time, to transform and define an area’s image.
Beyond its enriching personal benefits, public art is a true symbol of a city’s maturity. It increases a community’s assets and expresses a community’s positive sense of identity and values. It demonstrates unquestionable civic and corporate pride in citizenship and affirms an educational environment.
The following large scale Public Art pieces have been facilitated by Belfast Harbour:
DIVIDERS
Location: Clarendon Dock
Artist: Vivien Burnside
Material: Bronze and Stainless Steel
Installed: 2002
The Dividers sculpture stands as an archway or frame as the viewer looks inwards to the changing city or outwards to the sea. Dividers, in connecting points, allude to communication and navigation intrinsic to the Clarendon Dock area.
KIT
Location: Titanic Quarter
Artist: Tony Stallard
Material: Bronze
Installed: 2009
‘Kit’ is a dramatic site specific light sculpture which is 13.5 metres tall and cast in bronze. The artwork depicts recognizable Titanic elements on an outer frame and the overall sculpture suggests toy kits or air fix models.
BLINKS
Location: Titanic Quarter
Artist: Facilitated by visual artist Peter Nelson and designed and constructed by former shipyard welders.
Material: Welded metal sculpture
Installed: 2005
The term ‘Blinks’ refers to an irritation of the eye, suffered by shipyard welders, through watching the arc of the weld with the naked eye.
THE FLYING ANGEL
Location: The Mission to Seafarers, Prince’s Dock Street
Artist: Maurice Harron
Material: Bronze and Stainless Steel
Installed: 2000
The Flying Angel is a worldwide symbol of the Seafarers Mission. The Mission was set up in the mid-19th Century by clergy of the Anglican Church to provide shelter and comfort for sailors coming off long sea voyages. The Angel, shown as a protective force, flying above and in the act of calming the waves, was derived from the Scripture – Revelations 14 v 6
NAPOLI ANCHOR
Location: Airport Road West
Installed: 2009
The MSC Napoli, while sailing between Belgium and Portugal, suffered severe damage causing it to become beached at Branscombe, around one mile off the Devon coast, near the coastal town of Sidmouth. After containers from the wreck began washing up at Branscombe, around two hundred people went onto the beach to scavenge the flotsam. Scavenged goods included several BMW motorcycles. In August 2007 the bow section of the ship’s hull was taken to the Harland and Wolff shipyard at Belfast Harbour for disposal and recycling.
THE SEAHORSE
Location: Dargan Road
Artist: Ralf Sander
Material: Stainless Steel
Installed: 2013
The Seahorse Sculpture was commissioned to record the 400th anniversary of the port from the granting of a right in 1613 for the first quay to be constructed at High Street. Resting on an enlarged shipping bollard, the sculpture is designed to reflect the surrounding environment in a kaleidoscopic fashion. The eight-metre high Seahorse sculpture has strong connections to Belfast’s origins and maritime history, with the city’s first merchants printing the mythical creature on their coins throughout the 17th century.
