Bending Glass
A Neon exhibition in UTV's Havelock House
Featuring artworks by Johanna Leech | Stuart Calvin | Michael Hanna | Susan Hughes | Kevin Killen | AM Light
Writer P.E.A. Blair
This exhibition took place on 3rd - 6th March 2022 in Havelock House, Belfast.
Bending Glass tells the story of master glass bender and neon sign maker Adrian McNevison of AM Light. This exhibition illuminates the former UTV studios with artworks made from light and archive footage from the UTV vaults. It has been carefully crafted by Johanna Leech in collaboration with Stuart Calvin. Explore these collections to experience the neon artworks made by AM Light with Michael Hanna, Stuart Calvin and Johanna Leech; neon crafted by Kevin Killen and Light boxes by Susan Hughes.
To get a sense of how these artworks illuminated Havelock House watch this silent walk through of the exhibition filmed by Stuart Calvin:
Explore the exhibition through the essay
Welcome to Havelock House by P.E.A. Blair. This was originally a printed guide given to visitors. This audio version is read by Paula Blair,
who makes Audiovisual Cultures Podcast and writes about film and visual culture. We are currently working on a visual essay to accompany this text.
Click on this link to see how the printed version of the guide looked: PDF version of Bending Glass guide by P.E.A. Blair
Bending Glass was commissioned by Northern Ireland Screen’s Digital Film Archive with support from the Department for Communities. The UTV Archive in this exhibition is courtesy of the partnership project (ITV, Northern Ireland Screen and PRONI). The project was made possible with the provision of space from Flax Art Studios and support from Arts Council Northern Ireland. Special thanks to Adrian McNevison, Chris McNevison, everyone at AM Light and Flax Art Studios, Michael Hanna, Susan Hughes, Stuart Calvin, Kevin Killen, Paula Blair and Johanna Leech.
