Golden Thread Gallery
Imagined Communities

Inbal Abergil, Jude Anogwih, Rachel Bacon, Khaled Barakeh, Colin 
Darke, Shilpa Gupta, Nada Prlja, Judite dos Santos, Alejandro Vidal, 
Cheng-Ta Yu,Kai-Oi Jay Yung, and Carla Zaccagnini

Curated by Miguel Amado

21 February-20 April 2013

Gallery hours: Tuesday-Friday: 10.30-17.30; Saturday: 10.30-16.00
Opening reception: 21 February, 18.00-20.00

Golden Thread Gallery
84-94 Great Patrick Street
Belfast, BT1 2LU
Northern Ireland


Golden Thread Gallery is pleased to announce the exhibition Imagined 
Communities. This show presents works by a diverse set of established 
and emerging artists from around the world. Artists in the exhibition 
are Inbal Abergil, Jude Anogwih, Rachel Bacon, Khaled Barakeh, Colin 
Darke, Shilpa Gupta, Nada Prlja, Judite dos Santos, Alejandro Vidal, 
Cheng-Ta Yu, Kai-Oi Jay Yung, and Carla Zaccagnini. The show is 
curated by Miguel Amado and draws on his ongoing research into zones 
of conflict across the globe in general and into the imagination of 
Northern Ireland in particular.

Imagined Communities examines nationalism from an ideological 
perspective as well as from the mythological narratives that build 
national identity. The title of the exhibition is borrowed from the 
1983 book of the same title by the sociologist Benedict Anderson. 
Anderson advocates that a nation is a socially constructed community, 
imagined by the individuals who perceive themselves as part of a given 
society, and that this process takes place within the context of 
modernity. This thesis is explored through references to the symbols 
that shape the identification of a group with a common territory and 
history.

Imagined Communities includes works that address the typical elements, 
from flags to anthems, through which a nationalist feeling is formed 
in the collective unconscious. There are also works that look at 
monuments as a means to convey emotions and memories attached to 
systems of values, beliefs, and attitudes shared by a people. 
Allusions to military apparatuses, maps and separation barriers - such 
as walls - appear in works that suggest that uneven geographies play a 
key role in the development of nationalist enterprises. Migration 
movements are present in works that speak to the ambition for 
borderless countries characterizing the current age of globalization.


Golden Thread Gallery's exhibitions and public programs are supported 
by the Arts Council Northern Ireland and the Belfast City Council. 
Additional funding for this exhibition is provided by the 
International Culture Arts Network, the Playhouse, Derry-Londonderry, 
and Artis and the Embassy of Israel.Golden Thread Gallery
Imagined Communities

Spotted by Lost Painters at Re:Rotterdam: February 6th to 10th, 2013: http://www.lost-painters.nl/wp-content/uploads/Rachel-Bacon.jpg (photo Niek Hendrix)

December 2012: 

Installation of artwork in the main lobby of the the Palace of Justice in the Hague, commissioned by the Haagse Orde van Advocaten, in commemoration of 23 lawyers deported and murdered during World War II.

Unveiled on December 16th, 2012, and now open to the public at Prins Clauslaan 60, the Hague, NL.