New Sculpture Unveiled in the Belfast Hills

A sculpture of a stainless steel raindrop is to be unveiled today as the Belfast Hills newest piece of public art.

The six-metre tall sculpture, known as Origin overlooks Belfast from the Horseshoe Bend section of Cavehill Country Park. It will be visible from across the city.

The art piece is part of a cross-community collaboration between Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich on the Falls Road and the Spectrum Centre on the Shankill Road which has been celebrating the River Farset.

The River Farset has its source in the Belfast Hills. It was a vital source of sustenance for the first Belfast settlers. Later it became a key attraction for the many foundries and linen mills which flourished here. The river made Belfast an important industrial city, drawing many workers to Belfast from the surrounding countryside and further afield.

Origin

The sculpture highlights the centrality of the Belfast Hills and the River Farset to the development of the city socially, economically and physically. Simultaneously, it re-connects communities to this rich heritage.

Cultúrlann Executive Director Aisling Ní Labhraí says the excitement surrounding the project is growing:

“A lot of the work has been behind the scenes up to now with workshops and commissioning processes,” she said. “Now we’re moving up a gear with the launch and the preparations for the spectacle event and art piece. Anticipation is mounting. The investment the Creative Belfast Fund has made in the arts and communities has been a big boost for Belfast.”

“The six metre tall raindrop, made from polished stainless steel arcs, appears to hover six metres above the ground on a brushed stainless steel plinth and represents the elegant flow of water. Nestled inside the raindrop, is a fin of Narima glass, giving an ethereal quality and animating the external structure with elements of spectral colour, movement, texture, reflection and refraction which continuously shifts with the changing light and creates an arc of energy reflected back to the viewer.” Tracey McVerry (Solas Creative)

Roisin McDonough, chief executive of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland said, “Public money makes things possible that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. In the hands of artists a remarkable and defining legacy has been created for Belfast city through this piece of public art. Origin gives us a suitably powerful and inspiring statement about the scale and the influence that this river has had on generations of people’s lives and livelihoods in Belfast and I hope many, many people come to enjoy it.”

Click here for more information on the Farset project.