page_title: Raymond Watson (artist)
section_title: Exhibitions
hierarchical_section_title: Raymond Watson (artist) / Exhibitions
caption_attribution_description: English: Raymond Watson artist presents the Mystery of The Broighter Boat
context_page_description: Raymond P Watson is a visual artist from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He lives and works in Cushendall, in the Glens of Antrim. He studied Media Studies at the University of Ulster, obtaining a BA hons., and Master of Philosophy. He has worked as a Media Studies lecturer at the Belfast Metropolitan College, and worked as a group editor with a local publishing house for a number of years. He has produced artwork since the early 1990s and in 1999 stopped all other work to dedicate his energy to creating art. He has a substantial body of work influenced heavily by the recent political conflict in Northern Ireland. He is an eclectic artist who creates work in any media, commonly bronze, wood, clay, metals, paints and cement.
context_section_description: Since the 90s Watson has had many exhibitions across Ireland and in England, New York, and has contributed to joint exhibitions in many other countries.  A notable piece of his art is the Hands of History sculpture.  For this sculpture he managed to cast in bronze the hands of the political leaders who negotiated the Good Friday Agreement (Belfast Peace Agreement). Those cast are: David Trimble,  Ulster Unionist Party, Gerry Adams Sinn Féin, John Hume Social Democratic Labour Party, Malachy Curran N.I.Labour Party, Monica McWilliams N.I. Women's Coalition, David Irvin Progressive Unionist Party, Gary McMicheal Ulster Democratic Party, Seán Neeson Alliance Party. The British Government is represented by Mo Mowlam the then Secretary of State. This sculpture is a unique historical record of the aspirations of the Agreement, designed to create a blueprint for a better future in between all conflicted parties in Ireland.
  In March 2018 Raymond held an exhibition titled 'The Hands of History +20' to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Victoria Gallery and Museum, Liverpool. This exhibition was hosted by the Institute of Irish Studies (University of Liverpool) and curated by ArtisAnn Gallery (Belfast).
  In 2011 he created the largest public art installation ever seen in Belfast.  The Belfast Flags of Hope project was an installation of more than 10,000 art pieces created by communities across Belfast especially, and installed along the ‘Belfast Peaceline’ as a symbol of inclusive flag flying The project was in memory of murdered school boy Thomas Devlin and attended by Baroness May Blood.
  In 2015 he exhibited artwork commemorating the discovery of one of Ireland's national treasures - The Broighter Boat, at the 'Towards Broighter'  Exhibition in Limavady.
caption: Raymond Watson artist presents the Mystery of The Broighter Boat
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "<SAMSUNG DIGITAL CAMERA>", "Image Make": "SAMSUNG", "Image Model": "SAMSUNG ES55,ES57 / VLUU ES55 / SAMSUNG SL102", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "96", "Image YResolution": "96", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "907041", "Image DateTime": "2013:11:22 21:01:17", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "COPYRIGHT, 2009", "Image ExifOffset": "2370", "Image Padding": "[]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "1", "Thumbnail YResolution": "1", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "23424", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7030", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/20", "EXIF FNumber": "16/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2013:11:21 18:55:20", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2013:11:21 18:55:20", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "396565/196608", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "17/4", "EXIF ApertureValue": "67/20", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "67/20", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "63/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1082", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1356", "EXIF RelatedSoundFile": "RelatedSound", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "23234", "EXIF ExposureIndex": "1", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "35", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "2ADF44E57BEC48DABCA6A80298B67576", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "4168"}