Carol Moore Films

Blinks Sculpture at Titanic Quarter

BBC Radio Ulster - Arts Extra
17th May 2005

Marie Louise Muir (Presenter)
…A sculpture was unveiled in what is seen as the city's biggest regeneration project - The Titanic Quarter at Queen's Island, home of Harland and Wolff. Blinks can be found at the entrance to the Channel Commercial Park on Queen's Road and is the result of a collaboration between local visual artist Peter Nelson and several ex-shipyard workers. Just over five feet tall the yellow sculpture made of welded metal seeks to express the working lives of the great many men who worked as welders at Harland and Wolff. Louisa McCartney was at today's opening and spoke to Carol Moore of Red Lead Arts who organized the project.

…Blinks is an irritation of the eye which welders get. So the sculpture is based on the idea of a Victorian zoetrope….when you turn it and look inside you can see a moving image. So, when you look through the sculpture and turn the wheel you can see an eye blinking and hence a metaphor for the Blinks

Louisa
And how did the idea come to fruition?

Carol Moore
Well as you can see there are a lot of changes happening around Harland and Wolf particularly with the redevelopment of what is Titanic Quarter and Red Lead Arts thought it was important that the men who worked here were part of the changes happening. We thought a sculpture was perfect. Why? Because these men are skilled craftsmen so to bring those skills out of retirement and put them to good use in making a sculpture and have it on site here on the Queen's Road is the icing on the cake.

Louisa
So we're standing here now with two of the Harland and Wolff former welders who were involved in the project, Jackie Hutchison and Eddie Harrison. Eddie how long ago did you work here and what kind of changes do you see in the Titanic Quarter?

Eddie
50 years ago and started off as apprentice welder and come all the way through to foreman and ship repair which I'm just looking across at now. But I've been out of it some time. I'm retired. All this change to me is for the good.

Louisa
Tell me about your role in the project. How much involvement did you have in making the sculpture?

Eddie
Well peter Nelson was the main man. He's the sculptor behind it. Our thoughts and our input we told him what sort of a thing we like to see designed. He carried it through. We were the tools in his hands, he actually molded it into what he wanted and we just used our skills as welders and sheet workers and another welder, Big Ernie and between us we put it together under Peter's supervision and we are all very proud of it.

Louisa
Jackie, do you feel a certain sadness that this sculpture might represent a new youth for this area. That it's the end of an industrial past for Belfast?

Jackie
I hope not. I hope something comes out of it good. Maybe some years later it will help get the shipyard back on it's feet again, not building ships, but maybe repairing. I'd like to see that.

Louisa
Could you ever have imagined that this area that you used to work in would be the cornerstone of a revitalized Belfast?

Eddie
O yes, the writing's on the wall for a long time now. You could have seen that from 1976, you could see that the future of the shipbuilding was going down and it was just a matter of time. I'm surprised that they didn't actually start sooner that what they've been doing over the last few years, but now that they've started, full steam ahead to them… We were brought up the hard way, weren't we Jackie? We didn't have any of this finery about the place now. We had it rough. Our fathers and grandfathers before us had it rougher than us so it's all for the good.

Louisa
Standing in front of the Blinks sculpture how does it feel to have your work unveiled today?

Jackie
A good sense of pride and joy.

Louisa
Eddie is this your legacy?

Eddie
Yes and our name are on it. Jackie has his grandson here today. Mine have exams so they couldn't be here but they can all come down. It's not hard to find on the Queen's Road and it's there forever and when we're all gone, hopefully our songs and grandsons and future one's will all come down and say my granda had a part in that. So I'm very proud.