Belfast Festival, Ulster Museum and Frankenweenie

This weekend we decided to lay off events and just try to complete more Take Back Belfast challenges as part of Belfast Festival.  One of challenges was at the Dickens exhibition at the Ulster Museum so off we set to see what we could find.




First stop though was the Black Bear Cafe on Stranmillis for breakfast which
was lovely.  We had pancakes with scrambled eggs, bacon and mixed berries. Nom.




                                                                       

Then we crossed the road over to the Ulster Museum where we had a look round the Art exhibitions.  My son and I love to wander around the museum and by far the exhibition we most enjoyed is the Royal Ulster Academy Exhibition.  There is such a broad mix of artworks, from craft to portraits, sculpture to paintings both traditional and contemporary.

This rat lady was a favourite of my sons but I found her a little disturbing.  My own favourite item was the sculpture which oozes love, comfort and the safety of partnerships. Of course, the nudity ensured my son avoided it.






   

We also enjoyed the nautical Kenneth Shoesmith Exhibition and a gallery of beautiful old Italian paintings of which the Carrickfergus Madonna (pictured) was one.  These paintings are simply stunning and need to be seen to be believed.  Some of them look like they were painted yesterday.










The Ulster Covenant exhibition was interesting but there wasn't a lot for Dylan to look at so he got bored very quickly. I did however particularly enjoy this Ulster propaganda.

After watching a Brazilian dancer in the foyer, we set off to find the Dickens exhibition , since this was the reason we were there.

We were disappointed in the Dickens exhibition.  There was lots of information but none of it was child friendly.  We could not see the original materials from the Charles Dickens Museum in London as there were trestle tables seemingly abandoned in front of the cabinets.  We found the answer to our Take Back Belfast challenge and left.

Next stop was the amazing Magpie Collective in the Naughton Gallery at Queen's which opened on Thursday night.  It is a beautiful exhibition consisting of a blanket of flowers made from plastic bottles held up by magpies.  Dylan was allowed to take a flower home, an is determined to make a blanket for himself.

We took a few more photos of Belfast Festival Anthology plaques, wrote some haikus and then decided we'd had enough.  We were cold and wet and it didn't seem like the rain was going to stop so we decided to go to see Frankenweenie instead.  It's a lovely wee film, full of nostalgia and creepiness.  I loved that it was shot in black and white, though Dylan did express the opinion that 'it would have been better coloured in'.  A homage to Frankenstein, there are many other horror films alluded to such as Dracula, Wickerman and Gremlins.  Some of the characters are modeled on classic horror actors Boris Karloff and Vincent Price.
The dog is gorgeous and has some really lovely moments, such as when it drinks water and it spurts out from his sewn up skin.  I don't think the film is perfect, but we enjoyed it on a stormy Saturday afternoon.

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Karen

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