urban projects: street signs 2002

golden thread gallery,belfast
curated by gail prentice

Urban projects consists of a series of work derived from interviews with people from Ardoyne and the Bone.

The work is concerned with how people describe their locality and use local knowledge to navigate the urban environment.

A catalogue of the interviews was published to co incide with the exhibition

With thanks to Christine, Connor and Stevie.

Streets Signs is derived from names given by local people to places around Ardoyne and The Bone.

1. BONEY HILLS We called it the Bone Hills There used to be all bushes and all. We used to make huts and all and sit in them there. As kids we thought it was great and we used go down to the shop and we used to buy singles and all and go up and smoke 'em, thinking it was good craic like. Connor

2. FEELEY WALL ….But when we were kids we used to play in a place, well what we termed it the Feeley Wall. It was down at the bottom of Antigua St. but there was no houses in Antigua St It was hit during the war, it was blitzed, it was just waste ground. Well this wall, it took you over into a wee dam and up over the, what do you call that, the factory, Edenderry factory. Christine

3. THE GREENEY Ah 'The Greeney' in Alliance, it's a wee field so it is, it's up just beside the barricades. It separated the Catholics and the Protestants. So that there has been there for quiet a lot of years and we all call it The Greeney. There's loads of kids that go down there and just play football and go down on their bikes so there's like hills there as well and they go down on their bikes and knock about there so they do. Connor

4. DAM BACK Well the street I live in is Etna Drive and years and years ago out the back of Etna Dr. it was a dam until they made it into an entry and people still call that there 'The Dam Back'. Connor

5. DUCKEY DAM I don't know how it got the name Ducky Dam, but the dam was round where the actual Fleadh Pitch is. That would have been the Dam which would have supplied the water to the factories, to Ewarts Mill and Rose Bank Mill. But how it got the name Ducky Dam I honestly don't know. Stevie

6. EGGY TUNNELS When we were all kids, say about 9 or 10, there was the place called the Egg Factory, which we all called 'The Eggy ' and we used to all go up and there used to be tunnels. We used to call them 'The Eggy Tunnels'. We used to run up and down them shouting'' 'Bloody Mary', 'Bloody Mary','' thinking that there was some woman up there after us to kill us, ah we were kids. Connor

Signs mounted on wall, reflective vinal on alluminium each 12" 8" / 30cm.20cm