0:00:03 > 0:00:05Yes, it is good to be back.
0:00:05 > 0:00:10You're very welcome to the first in a brand-new series of The Arts Show.
0:00:10 > 0:00:11So, let's hit the ground running.
0:00:11 > 0:00:13Here's what's coming up.
0:00:14 > 0:00:18Things Left Unsaid In American TV News Studios.
0:00:18 > 0:00:20Paul Seawright's eloquent photographic response
0:00:20 > 0:00:22to the war in Iraq.
0:00:22 > 0:00:26The photographer's shadow is cast into the image metaphorically.
0:00:26 > 0:00:29Hidden in plain sight, you may not know artist Chris Wilson,
0:00:29 > 0:00:32but you will almost certainly know his art.
0:00:32 > 0:00:36And following the passing of literary giant Brian Friel,
0:00:36 > 0:00:40actor-director Adrian Dunbar reflects on his genius.
0:00:40 > 0:00:43I think it's going to be a long time before we realise
0:00:43 > 0:00:46the extent of his contribution to the culture.
0:00:46 > 0:00:51And when we do start to realise, we'll see what a towering figure he actually is.
0:01:18 > 0:01:22And we start the new series in the Lyric, the Belfast theatre
0:01:22 > 0:01:25where so many of Brian Friel's plays have been performed.
0:01:25 > 0:01:27More on that later.
0:01:28 > 0:01:31But first, in between holding down the day job
0:01:31 > 0:01:35as Professor of Photography at the Ulster University,
0:01:35 > 0:01:38Paul Seawright is an internationally celebrated photographer.
0:01:38 > 0:01:42And, like his friend and fellow artist Colin Davidson,
0:01:42 > 0:01:45who's iconic portraits hang here in the Lyric foyer,
0:01:45 > 0:01:48Paul has a new exhibition at the Ulster Museum.
0:01:51 > 0:01:54'Attacks have grown significantly during the first weeks
0:01:54 > 0:01:57'of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.'
0:01:57 > 0:02:01The photographer's shadow is cast into the image metaphorically.
0:02:01 > 0:02:04'Weapons of mass destruction in the hands of a terror network.'
0:02:04 > 0:02:08My work's always about what's excluded, and what's not shown.
0:02:08 > 0:02:11'We're making a lot of progress in Iraq, and we're making it every day.
0:02:11 > 0:02:16'My heart breaks. I pray, you know... Several a month.'
0:02:16 > 0:02:18The series title is called Things Left Unsaid
0:02:18 > 0:02:21and, of course, this image sums it up very well.
0:02:21 > 0:02:25That void represents the things that are not spoken about,
0:02:25 > 0:02:27the things that are not shown on television.
0:02:27 > 0:02:30I mean, this project on the surface seems to be about news.
0:02:30 > 0:02:32But, of course, it's not really about news at all.
0:02:32 > 0:02:36It's about war and that void, that blackness, that unknown
0:02:36 > 0:02:39and the darkness that it represents in relation to war
0:02:39 > 0:02:42is really key in the understanding of this work.
0:02:44 > 0:02:48As the title suggests in the series, the things left unsaid,
0:02:48 > 0:02:50the unspeakable things about conflict.
0:02:50 > 0:02:54The things that news cannot show us or cannot really get us close to,
0:02:54 > 0:02:57even though there's the artifice that it can, it can't.
0:02:57 > 0:03:02And the series is trying to grapple with that kind of duality.
0:03:02 > 0:03:04Of the reality of the news studio,
0:03:04 > 0:03:07but this kind of hyper reality of war itself.
0:03:07 > 0:03:10So, this thing that none of us really can quite understand
0:03:10 > 0:03:11that's beyond our comprehension.
0:03:14 > 0:03:17An artwork gives up its meaning slowly.
0:03:17 > 0:03:23And therefore you're making work that is layered, it's not obvious.
0:03:23 > 0:03:26And requires the viewer to bring something to the image.
0:03:30 > 0:03:34I'm using language as well as something visual in the work.
0:03:34 > 0:03:37The titles of the photographs themselves are very sparse,
0:03:37 > 0:03:38but also very leading.
0:03:38 > 0:03:41There's an image called Clusters, which is a cluster of lights.
0:03:41 > 0:03:45But, of course, that references cluster bombs.
0:03:45 > 0:03:48All of that is a kind of subtle way to open up the layered
0:03:48 > 0:03:50narratives in the work.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04This is a remote device, as in a remote camera, but of course,
0:04:04 > 0:04:08in contemporary warfare, a lot of the warfare is remote.
0:04:08 > 0:04:10So you'll get a couple of soldiers sitting
0:04:10 > 0:04:13in a Portakabin in Las Vegas, and they're flying drones
0:04:13 > 0:04:17or unmanned planes over Syria or Iraq.
0:04:17 > 0:04:20It's trying to play with that idea that there is this
0:04:20 > 0:04:23coming together of technology, the technology of war,
0:04:23 > 0:04:27the technology of reporting on war, the technology of the news studio.
0:04:27 > 0:04:30You know, the lexicon is the same.
0:04:30 > 0:04:33One of the challenges in making work when you're dealing with
0:04:33 > 0:04:37quite complex content - for me, the content is everything -
0:04:37 > 0:04:39is that it still has to work as a piece of art.
0:04:39 > 0:04:42This is beautiful to look at, the colours,
0:04:42 > 0:04:43the abstract nature of the objects,
0:04:43 > 0:04:46but for me it's also important that it means something,
0:04:46 > 0:04:49it contributes something to the meaning of the larger body of work.
0:04:49 > 0:04:53It's about that green screen idea, night-vision goggles,
0:04:53 > 0:04:55these umbilical cords,
0:04:55 > 0:05:01the same kind of cords that run to remote robots for defusing IEDs.
0:05:01 > 0:05:04All of those ideas are there, but of course, on the surface,
0:05:04 > 0:05:07you still have to seduce your audience visually.
0:05:12 > 0:05:14It's true to say that all of the work I have made,
0:05:14 > 0:05:18whether it be in Afghanistan or sub-Saharan Africa, North America,
0:05:18 > 0:05:21that essentially I am really making work about Belfast.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24It is about my experience of growing up in this place
0:05:24 > 0:05:28and the contested nature of landscape and place,
0:05:28 > 0:05:30and in this case, the reporting of conflict.
0:05:34 > 0:05:38I have been criticised, I suppose, for avoiding taking
0:05:38 > 0:05:41a position on a lot of the subjects I have talked about.
0:05:41 > 0:05:42I'm talking about difficult things,
0:05:42 > 0:05:45so I use art practice as a way to navigate that.
0:05:47 > 0:05:50There is a lot left unsaid by me as an artist,
0:05:50 > 0:05:52because the idea is that the viewer will come in
0:05:52 > 0:05:55and bring all of their own latent prejudice to this work,
0:05:55 > 0:05:57they'll bring all of their own preconceptions
0:05:57 > 0:06:00about conflict and how it is represented.
0:06:00 > 0:06:02People here in Northern Ireland particularly might do that,
0:06:02 > 0:06:06and reflect on the way that the media has or has not
0:06:06 > 0:06:09represented the conflict in Northern Ireland.
0:06:12 > 0:06:15And Things Left Unsaid is at the Ulster Museum now.
0:06:15 > 0:06:18Paul Seawright will be my guest later in the show to discuss how
0:06:18 > 0:06:21a single frame can change the world.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25Now, if any of this has got you thinking creatively, the BBC has got
0:06:25 > 0:06:27a great resource online at the moment,
0:06:27 > 0:06:28the BBC Get Creative campaign.
0:06:28 > 0:06:31Whether it be photography, dance, theatre or music,
0:06:31 > 0:06:34all you have to do is upload your performance
0:06:34 > 0:06:35to #getcreative, #loveto,
0:06:35 > 0:06:39and you might even find your work featured on BBC Television,
0:06:39 > 0:06:41radio or online.
0:06:46 > 0:06:49We pass so much public art every day,
0:06:49 > 0:06:52but how much do we know about the artists who actually make it?
0:06:52 > 0:06:54Probably not that much.
0:06:54 > 0:06:57We decided to put that right by entering the imaginative world
0:06:57 > 0:07:01of artist Chris Wilson in his studio on the north coast.
0:07:15 > 0:07:19When I was developing the Threads of Time sculpture,
0:07:19 > 0:07:22I remembered how, as a child,
0:07:22 > 0:07:24I would use the rug in front
0:07:24 > 0:07:28of the fire and mould it into a landscape.
0:07:28 > 0:07:32That idea became part of the development of the sculpture.
0:07:32 > 0:07:35The headquarters there, Newtownabbey Borough Council,
0:07:35 > 0:07:39it's an old mill, so the linen idea was very important.
0:07:39 > 0:07:42The sides of the table, the cloth has damask patterns,
0:07:42 > 0:07:47and on the surface, it's transformed into the idea of a landscape,
0:07:47 > 0:07:49with the Cavehill and the road network.
0:07:49 > 0:07:50So in a way,
0:07:50 > 0:07:55that childhood memory played quite an important part in that idea.
0:07:59 > 0:08:01The amount of burnishing we're doing here now,
0:08:01 > 0:08:05is that just too strong, or is that picking out those details?
0:08:05 > 0:08:06I think that's fine.
0:08:08 > 0:08:10The latest piece of public art that I've been
0:08:10 > 0:08:14working on is for Southampton.
0:08:14 > 0:08:16I love the almost playfulness
0:08:16 > 0:08:19and surrealism of putting boats upside down.
0:08:19 > 0:08:21For me, the idea was to create a sense of movement.
0:08:21 > 0:08:23Yeah, it really does.
0:08:25 > 0:08:28The piece echoes the idea of a globe or a sphere,
0:08:28 > 0:08:30but with most of it cut away.
0:08:30 > 0:08:33This piece represents about eight months' work
0:08:33 > 0:08:34to get it to this stage.
0:08:34 > 0:08:38I was thinking about Southampton as being a gateway for this trade,
0:08:38 > 0:08:40that is on a world basis.
0:08:41 > 0:08:45Transforming ideas, transforming materials
0:08:45 > 0:08:50I feel is a very important part of art, or making art.
0:08:52 > 0:08:56There is something very interesting about bronze casting,
0:08:56 > 0:09:00it's almost like a magical act and it becomes something very permanent.
0:09:01 > 0:09:04The longer that they are out in the public domain,
0:09:04 > 0:09:08the more the natural patina and the verdigris colour will build on it.
0:09:12 > 0:09:16Global Journeys in Newcastle was actually the first piece
0:09:16 > 0:09:17where I used bronze.
0:09:17 > 0:09:19The idea was that this
0:09:19 > 0:09:21mirror-polished stainless steel sphere
0:09:21 > 0:09:25would reflect the sea, the sky, the mountains.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28Basically become like a world in itself.
0:09:32 > 0:09:37The bronze design around the base echoes the idea of
0:09:37 > 0:09:41the salmon returning along the Shimna River every year.
0:09:47 > 0:09:54The sense of place I feel is important within my art.
0:09:56 > 0:09:59I go walking along the coast,
0:09:59 > 0:10:03I'm looking at the landscape in a particular way,
0:10:03 > 0:10:05I'm looking at the strata,
0:10:05 > 0:10:09I'm thinking of the geological history that informs
0:10:09 > 0:10:13this landscape and I'm also looking at how that thin layer
0:10:13 > 0:10:16of human activity exists on the top of it.
0:10:16 > 0:10:20And it's those connections that I'm interested in exploring.
0:10:23 > 0:10:26All you can hope for as an artist is that some of the things that
0:10:26 > 0:10:29you do connect with other people in the world.
0:10:32 > 0:10:36As an artist, you work every day. And some days, you make art.
0:10:43 > 0:10:45He's been hailed "the Irish Chekhov"
0:10:45 > 0:10:50and the equal of Tennessee Williams, Harold Pinter and Arthur Miller.
0:10:50 > 0:10:56Brian Friel may be gone from us, but his legacy is huge.
0:10:58 > 0:11:01Much has been written about our giant of world theatre.
0:11:04 > 0:11:10I'm here with Adrian Dunbar, who has directed several of Brian's plays.
0:11:10 > 0:11:12Do you think he was a genius?
0:11:14 > 0:11:17Yeah. Yes, I do, of course I think he was a genius.
0:11:17 > 0:11:22You can't write that many plays, do that many translations,
0:11:22 > 0:11:27have so much success in what must be one of the most difficult
0:11:27 > 0:11:33art forms to achieve success in, so yes, Brian is a genius,
0:11:33 > 0:11:37and now that he has left us, of course,
0:11:37 > 0:11:41we recognise even more what a genius he was.
0:11:41 > 0:11:42What was he like?
0:11:42 > 0:11:49He was a very warm person towards me and towards anybody, I think,
0:11:49 > 0:11:51who was working on his work,
0:11:51 > 0:11:55and who was sincere about working on his work.
0:11:55 > 0:11:59But he was very thorough and very rigorous,
0:11:59 > 0:12:04and didn't stand any frivolity or...
0:12:04 > 0:12:06He was a very thorough person,
0:12:06 > 0:12:09and you had to be on top of your game to work with him.
0:12:09 > 0:12:13And of course, like all great people, all the standards
0:12:13 > 0:12:17rose around him when you started to engage with him and his work.
0:12:17 > 0:12:21What was he then like whenever you first directed?
0:12:21 > 0:12:25And you went with his biggie, didn't you? Philadelphia, Here I Come!
0:12:25 > 0:12:28Yes, I directed Philadelphia, Here I Come!
0:12:28 > 0:12:30up in Derry, and I was lucky that I was directing it in Derry
0:12:30 > 0:12:33because it meant that Brian was able to come
0:12:33 > 0:12:36and be very hands-on with us.
0:12:37 > 0:12:41And actually come and see a little bit of rehearsals
0:12:41 > 0:12:44and stuff like that, make sure we were on the right road,
0:12:44 > 0:12:49which was great, because it's fabulous,
0:12:49 > 0:12:52the relationship between the writer and the actor, of course,
0:12:52 > 0:12:55he was very encouraging towards the actors,
0:12:55 > 0:12:57which really helped me as a director.
0:12:57 > 0:12:59Was he encouraging to you as well, though?
0:12:59 > 0:13:02Yes, he was always encouraging to me.
0:13:02 > 0:13:05I think he has always been encouraging to people
0:13:05 > 0:13:10he believes sincerely understand and try and get inside his work.
0:13:10 > 0:13:14And was there a frisson, a change in atmosphere when
0:13:14 > 0:13:17you knew that Friel was in the house
0:13:17 > 0:13:18and he was watching all the rehearsals?
0:13:18 > 0:13:23Well, of course, of course, because way before everybody else understood
0:13:23 > 0:13:27what a genius Brian Friel was, the actors already knew,
0:13:27 > 0:13:31because they were speaking his words, they were inhabiting
0:13:31 > 0:13:33his characters, they could see the depth
0:13:33 > 0:13:37and the scope of what he was doing, I think.
0:13:37 > 0:13:41They were responding to it in a very immediate way,
0:13:41 > 0:13:46so yeah, the game is always upped when a genius is around,
0:13:46 > 0:13:53he just lifts the whole, you know, all our consciousness, if you like.
0:13:53 > 0:13:54You busy yourself?
0:13:54 > 0:13:57Oh, the usual, housework, looking after his lordship.
0:13:57 > 0:14:00'Anybody, especially with an Ulster sensibility,
0:14:00 > 0:14:02'is completely inside his work.'
0:14:02 > 0:14:04..sell sewing machines.
0:14:04 > 0:14:08'That civil quality, non-frivolous quality, that suddenly,'
0:14:08 > 0:14:12sometimes bursts into... Like a dance, in Dancing at Lughnasa.
0:14:12 > 0:14:14TRADITIONAL IRISH MUSIC PLAYS
0:14:19 > 0:14:21THEY HOWL
0:14:24 > 0:14:27What do you feel will be his legacy?
0:14:27 > 0:14:32We have to, you know, rethink, redraw our whole map of
0:14:32 > 0:14:37not just Irish theatre, but certainly European theatre...
0:14:40 > 0:14:45You can go online and you can find Basque students doing translations,
0:14:45 > 0:14:50you can find people doing his work all over the place.
0:14:50 > 0:14:53Rather like Beckett, he is very accessible,
0:14:53 > 0:14:55especially to those people who are dealing
0:14:55 > 0:14:57with the post-colonial mind-set,
0:14:57 > 0:15:00which he wonderfully danced us through.
0:15:00 > 0:15:05Took us, led us out of the parish and into the wide world really.
0:15:05 > 0:15:10So, you know, I think it is going to be a long time
0:15:10 > 0:15:16before we realise the extent of his contribution to the culture.
0:15:16 > 0:15:18- And when we do start to realise... - HE CHUCKLES
0:15:18 > 0:15:22..we'll see what a towering figure he actually is.
0:15:22 > 0:15:24And we'll have a special programme
0:15:24 > 0:15:25taking an in-depth look
0:15:25 > 0:15:27at Brian Friel's life and work
0:15:27 > 0:15:29on The Arts Show in December.
0:15:31 > 0:15:35Every year, literally tens of thousands of people stream
0:15:35 > 0:15:39through the doors of the Ulster Museum to see one art exhibition.
0:15:39 > 0:15:41Such is the popularity of the Royal Ulster Academy show,
0:15:41 > 0:15:44we couldn't resist going behind the scenes.
0:15:49 > 0:15:51The Royal Ulster Academy has been
0:15:51 > 0:15:53running for about 134 years.
0:15:55 > 0:15:59This is the largest exhibition of painting,
0:15:59 > 0:16:02every year, in Northern Ireland.
0:16:02 > 0:16:06We're made up of members, both academicians and associates.
0:16:09 > 0:16:13John Luke, Colin Middleton, Basil Blackshaw, TP Flanagan,
0:16:13 > 0:16:16they've all been academicians.
0:16:16 > 0:16:23It's a hard job to get in. Only 12% of submitted paintings get through.
0:16:25 > 0:16:29And the wonderful thing about it is, it's such a range of works.
0:16:29 > 0:16:33You have 300-odd pictures. There are a lot of paintings
0:16:33 > 0:16:34that tell a story,
0:16:34 > 0:16:38there are other pictures that are abstract and the colours vibrate.
0:16:39 > 0:16:45I have to say, you can't miss the Red Crane of Brendan Jamison's.
0:16:46 > 0:16:52Brendan makes this from wool, and he loves using materials that
0:16:52 > 0:16:59should be knitted or the direct opposite that you would expect.
0:16:59 > 0:17:03A crane is masculine, it's tough, it's metallic.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06It's dominant, it's wonderful, and it's going to give us
0:17:06 > 0:17:10the colour theme for this gallery, which has to be red.
0:17:12 > 0:17:13Other years you might have
0:17:13 > 0:17:16still-life sections or print sections,
0:17:16 > 0:17:20but I think colour is dominating, from the reds to the vivid blues.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23So colour, definitely, is back,
0:17:23 > 0:17:28AND there is also a tremendous emphasis now on
0:17:28 > 0:17:31good figure drawing, which I like to see,
0:17:31 > 0:17:34that that academic rigour is still there.
0:17:36 > 0:17:41I also love the Paper Boat that Mary McCaffrey has painted,
0:17:41 > 0:17:43her son made the paper boat
0:17:43 > 0:17:47and she's got the feeling of the water and the boat floating in it.
0:17:49 > 0:17:55I like the Jennifer Trouton - very, very skilled academic work.
0:17:55 > 0:17:59And it's virtuoso in its hyperrealism.
0:17:59 > 0:18:04She's set up a still life and this is actually oil on canvas,
0:18:04 > 0:18:06it's not collage.
0:18:09 > 0:18:13This is accurately painted, and the satin material just shines.
0:18:13 > 0:18:17You can almost feel the flowers embroidered on that.
0:18:21 > 0:18:24Anyone can submit their art for selection in the exhibition,
0:18:24 > 0:18:28but judges also have the opportunity to promote an artist
0:18:28 > 0:18:30whose work wasn't initially selected.
0:18:33 > 0:18:35My personal choice was Stephen Johnston.
0:18:35 > 0:18:42He has a combination of feeling, atmosphere, good painting,
0:18:42 > 0:18:46and, you know, the ivy coming in to the old house.
0:18:47 > 0:18:53Youth and age and decay and living, I think it's all in that picture.
0:18:54 > 0:18:58Young man of 28, he is open submission,
0:18:58 > 0:19:01which is tremendous, because he's not a member yet.
0:19:01 > 0:19:04This is how the young blood is being brought in.
0:19:09 > 0:19:14In 1985, with not a lot to laugh about in Northern Ireland,
0:19:14 > 0:19:18Mike Moloney co-founded the Belfast Community Circus School.
0:19:18 > 0:19:20Mike passed away in 2013, and in his memory
0:19:20 > 0:19:22the Arts Council of Northern Ireland
0:19:22 > 0:19:26set up the annual Mike Moloney award for young people.
0:19:26 > 0:19:29The first artist to receive it is Christopher McAuley.
0:19:39 > 0:19:43The spark to get me where I am happened very young.
0:19:43 > 0:19:46I think it would have been the first time I was up on a trapeze,
0:19:46 > 0:19:48and I could feel her sore it was and how painful
0:19:48 > 0:19:52and how much it took to get up there, but it was like,
0:19:52 > 0:19:56"I'm sitting on it now, there's so much more I can do."
0:19:56 > 0:19:59Being up there, it's a very powerful feeling.
0:19:59 > 0:20:02It's hard work, but even the hard work is fun.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06During my A-levels I had this continual battle of
0:20:06 > 0:20:09"Should I go to university and study science or should I go
0:20:09 > 0:20:12"and keep up the circus, should I do it full-time?"
0:20:12 > 0:20:15Luckily, I fell into a course in Belfast at the time called
0:20:15 > 0:20:17"The Circus Arts for Employment",
0:20:17 > 0:20:20and it was nine months' intense course.
0:20:20 > 0:20:23With circus, you never stop learning.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26New teaching techniques and skills are developed
0:20:26 > 0:20:28and invented every day.
0:20:28 > 0:20:33This award means that I can go to Brazil and train for 12 weeks.
0:20:33 > 0:20:35Brazil is renowned for its approach to circus,
0:20:35 > 0:20:37it's the circus capital of the world.
0:20:37 > 0:20:39I'll be training in two different schools.
0:20:39 > 0:20:41Catsapa Arts School,
0:20:41 > 0:20:45which combines circus, art, dance, theatre, music all together.
0:20:45 > 0:20:47The National Circus of Brazil
0:20:47 > 0:20:49is renowned for creating
0:20:49 > 0:20:51some of the most elite performers.
0:20:51 > 0:20:54Some of the likes would go towards Cirque du Soleil or Cirque Eloize,
0:20:54 > 0:20:58other renowned circus universities throughout the world.
0:20:58 > 0:21:01The 12 weeks in Brazil are going to be intense.
0:21:01 > 0:21:04There is masterclasses in aerial silks, trapeze,
0:21:04 > 0:21:07loads of things, I am going to come back a lot fitter
0:21:07 > 0:21:10and a lot more equipped to provide better shows.
0:21:10 > 0:21:12The feeling of performing up there,
0:21:12 > 0:21:18I see it almost as taking a step back, just your muscle memory
0:21:18 > 0:21:22and the fact that you have drilled it so much into your body.
0:21:22 > 0:21:24Your body knows what move's coming next,
0:21:24 > 0:21:28but I think the idea of you can just relax and let your body do it.
0:21:30 > 0:21:34Your body does it, but you're just watching yourself do it.
0:21:34 > 0:21:37It's a lovely feeling, just being like, "OK, this is how it works."
0:21:37 > 0:21:39It's an amazing feeling.
0:21:54 > 0:21:58Few of us were left unmoved by the image of Aylan Kurdi's body
0:21:58 > 0:22:01washed up on a beach in Turkey.
0:22:01 > 0:22:04The photograph of the three-year-old Syrian child
0:22:04 > 0:22:06appalled the world into action,
0:22:06 > 0:22:08and such was the power of that image, it seems to me,
0:22:08 > 0:22:12Paul, that a little bit like your own work,
0:22:12 > 0:22:15it did so much more than just straight photo journalism could.
0:22:15 > 0:22:17Yes, I think there was
0:22:17 > 0:22:19a casualness about the way that photograph was made,
0:22:19 > 0:22:22as if it had been observed from a distance, but also
0:22:22 > 0:22:24the very nature of it was something that we are not used to seeing.
0:22:24 > 0:22:27It wasn't dramatic, it was a very quiet picture,
0:22:27 > 0:22:28but heartbreaking, because it just
0:22:28 > 0:22:30looked like a piece of rubbish
0:22:30 > 0:22:31washed up on the sand,
0:22:31 > 0:22:33and of course, it was a child.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36I think also the closeness to the West,
0:22:36 > 0:22:38we recognise the trainers,
0:22:38 > 0:22:39the Velcro trainers,
0:22:39 > 0:22:41the red T-shirt, blue shorts.
0:22:41 > 0:22:44I think that is what created the empathy.
0:22:44 > 0:22:48What other images throughout the 20th and 21st centuries
0:22:48 > 0:22:51of popular culture have created such an impact?
0:22:51 > 0:22:52It's not the first time we've seen
0:22:52 > 0:22:54controversial images of children in war.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57The very famous Nick Ut picture of a nine-year-old naked girl
0:22:57 > 0:23:01running down a road in Vietnam fleeing a napalm attack,
0:23:01 > 0:23:03that's a very famous image, in fact,
0:23:03 > 0:23:05it is so iconic and so important
0:23:05 > 0:23:07that it has come to represent
0:23:07 > 0:23:08the Vietnam War.
0:23:08 > 0:23:11It's actually transferred into another context,
0:23:11 > 0:23:14on the Falls Road, there's even a mural that has that same girl
0:23:14 > 0:23:17dressed in a hijab running down a Syrian road.
0:23:17 > 0:23:20So anyone who looks at that will recognise the link between
0:23:20 > 0:23:23Vietnam, and I guess what's being proposed in that mural is Syria.
0:23:23 > 0:23:27When does, though, a single frame transcend just being
0:23:27 > 0:23:31a photograph and become a work of art?
0:23:32 > 0:23:35I think it is about the lack of text.
0:23:35 > 0:23:39Normally we have images surrounded by contextualisation and by text.
0:23:39 > 0:23:43What happened with that image, the way it was disseminated,
0:23:43 > 0:23:47it was on social media, very little text, the image did everything,
0:23:47 > 0:23:51and I think an image transcends all other photographs
0:23:51 > 0:23:54when it does that, when it needs nothing else in order for it
0:23:54 > 0:23:56to function, in order for us to understand what it is about.
0:23:56 > 0:24:00And when does it transcend taste and decency? As a photographer,
0:24:00 > 0:24:04as an artist, when is the right time to take that photograph
0:24:04 > 0:24:06and when is the time to walk away?
0:24:06 > 0:24:09Well, in my view, it's very rare that it would be the
0:24:09 > 0:24:11right time to take that kind of photograph.
0:24:11 > 0:24:14That's not something that should be done often.
0:24:14 > 0:24:16It's a very unusual singular moment.
0:24:16 > 0:24:20As an artist, I am always trying to find ways of
0:24:20 > 0:24:23engaging people like that without showing the drama, that's what I do,
0:24:23 > 0:24:26and about trying to get that line just right between moving people
0:24:26 > 0:24:30and making people interested in things you want to talk about,
0:24:30 > 0:24:32and actually being ethical
0:24:32 > 0:24:35and decent in terms of respecting the people
0:24:35 > 0:24:37you are making work about.
0:24:37 > 0:24:39Paul Seawright, thank you.
0:24:43 > 0:24:48It is the opera with perhaps the most famous aria of all time.
0:24:48 > 0:24:52Nessun Dorma, by Puccini, from his opera Turandot.
0:24:52 > 0:24:54A new production is coming to the Grand Opera House next month,
0:24:54 > 0:24:57but be warned, the director has been dubbed
0:24:57 > 0:24:59"the Tarantino of Opera",
0:24:59 > 0:25:04so expect a little bit more Reservoir Dogs than Madame Butterfly.
0:25:04 > 0:25:05OPERATIC SINGING
0:25:44 > 0:25:47Definitely not for the faint-hearted.
0:25:47 > 0:25:51Next month, we will be asking why do modern reinterpretations of opera
0:25:51 > 0:25:53feel the need to shock?
0:25:53 > 0:25:58but we leave with you tonight with that famous aria, Nessun Dorma.
0:25:58 > 0:26:00In a bespoke performance for The Art Show,
0:26:00 > 0:26:03here are members of the Ulster Youth Orchestra.
0:26:03 > 0:26:04Good night.