Graham Gingles, Joy Gerrard, Sharon Kelly, John Rainey, Chloe Austin, Ailbhe Greaney, Megan Doherty and Clare Gallagher

The Golden Thread Gallery is delighted to revisit one of our most popular exhibitions, which travelled all over Europe yet has never actually been seen in the gallery!

In the midst of the 2020 lockdown, inspired by a fragment of an old song, Golden Thread Gallery director Peter Richards had an idea for a different kind of exhibition, one that could overcome the distances forced between artists and curators worldwide by the Covid-19 pandemic. Not Alone was an exhibition in a bottle, containing eight works from some of the leading artists on this island: Graham Gingles; Joy Gerrard; Sharon Kelly; John Rainey; Chloe Austin; Ailbhe Greaney; Megan Doherty and Clare Gallagher. Each artist created a piece of art tiny or portable enough to fit inside a glass bottle, yet powerful enough to convey vast philosophies, stories and ideas, and endless possibilities of interpretation.

Packed up, the exhibition was sent out to international curators who each mounted the exhibition in their own homes. Installing and arranging the works in their spaces, they each created new configurations, different contexts and connections for the exhibition. They then packed Not Alone back into its bottle and sent it on to its next destination.

Back home in Belfast, the Not Alone bottle is finally open for all to see. A domestic-sized exhibition designed to build connections in a cut-off and isolated world, finally brings us back together in a joyous celebration of our wonderful artistic community.