Small Worlds

MAC, 10 Exchange St, West St Anne’s Sq, Belfast Tues-Sat 10am-8pm, Sun-Mon 10am- 7pm Until Jul 22 themaclive

MAC, 10 Exchange St, West St Anne's Sq, Belfast Tues-Sat 10am-8pm, Sun-Mon 10am- 7pm Until Jul 22 themaclive. com 048-90235053 SETTLEMENT Belfast Exposed Photography, The Exchange Place, 23 Donegall St Until Aug 10 048-90230965 belfastexposed.org

Two exhibitions present starkly opposed views of our relationship to habitation.

Eithne Jordan’s Small Worlds are small-scale paintings that quietly explore the way people live in several European cities and developed rural areas. Jordan’s quiet, understated approach, usually leaving people out of the picture, evoke what it is like to be in a place, the way the stone and concrete of cities take on a comfortable, lived in texture over time.

In Settlement, by contrast, Anthony Haughey’s photographs, juxtaposed with a model of the erstwhile Anglo Irish Bank HQ building, document the twilight zone of ghost estates built at the height of the property bubble, when property was viewed purely as a commodity and common sense went out the window along with sensible planning.

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Compare and contrast.

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Aidan Dunne

Aidan Dunne

Aidan Dunne is visual arts critic and contributor to The Irish Times