About
An elective family tree is an exhibition of new works by Belfast-based artist Peter Richards, featuring a mix of collaborations and unrequited conversations with mediated references. The exhibition's title points to a revisiting of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's The Social Contract, particularly the book's beginning. The model of family as society is transposed, with family being replaced by references, and society by knowledge.
The exhibition moves through ideas of the construct, of framing and of perspective, and in part pays homage to ideas that have simultaneously informed and limited an engagement with family, society and understanding.
Richards was born in Cardiff in 1970. He was educated at the University of Wales, Cardiff, (BA Fine Art) before completing his M.Phil. studies, âRepresentations of Representations', at the University of Ulster, Belfast (1998). His first solo exhibition, Corrective Perspective, was at the Context Gallery, Derry in 1996, and since that time he has exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions both locally and internationally, including Dogs Have No Religion, Czech Museum of Fine Art, Prague; The Belfast Way, Herzelyia Museum, Tel Aviv; and The Nature of Things, la Biennale di Venezia 51.
The artist will be in conversation with Christa-Maria Lerm Hayes on Saturday 1 September, 11.00am in the Council Chamber, Lanyon Building, QUB
