Carnegie Mellon University Aisling O'Beirn's "And Other Storeys" series references life's shifting nature. Click photo for larger image.

Northern Ireland currently has a strong presence at Carnegie Mellon University.

"Tides," at the Regina Gouger Miller Gallery, comprises work by nine contemporary artists who live there, almost all of whom earned degrees at the University of Ulster and/or are on the school's faculty. Hilary Robinson, who was appointed CMU Dean of the College of Fine Arts last summer, previously headed the University of Ulster School of Art and Design. And the recently appointed CMU Head of the School of Art, John Carson, is a native of Belfast.

Robinson and Carson, along with history professor David Miller, who specializes in Irish social history, will participate in a free, public panel that begins at 6 p.m. tomorrow at the gallery. "Tidings: New Turns in Art From Northern Ireland" will address works in the exhibition and the broader, political and cultural issues raised by them. Assistant Professor of art Melissa Ragona will moderate.

Carson, who received a B.A. in 1977 from the University of Ulster and an M.F.A. in 1983 from California Institute of the Arts, says he was attracted to CMU by the department's philosophy -- "an approach to art that doesn't just stay within the institutions but looks at different contexts, political and social implications of the work."

Most of art in this handsome show is not overtly political, and would be at home among other contemporary international expression. In fact, the artists were selected from a group who represented Northern Ireland at the 2005 Venice Biennale.

Alistair Wilson's "Giverny II," for example, is an interpretation via glass installation of Monet's famed water lily paintings that captures the gestalt of the original works while presenting a new vision of the characteristics of light that the great Impressionist pursued. The boldly colored oil "Chamonix," by Darren Murray, mixes elements of European landscape painting and Asian scrolls.

Alistair Wilson's "Giverny II" and (on wall) Ian Charlesworth's "Always, again" are in the exhibition "Tides" at CMU. Click photo for larger image.

Other works, however, lend themselves to layered interpretation by those who've lived through the bitterness and violence of recent Northern Ireland history.

To create the commanding, aesthetically captivating "Always, again," Ian Charlesworth lay on his back patiently depositing row after curling row of carbon onto Plexiglas panels using a burning candle. The exercise, Carson says, arose from the habit of men from both sides of the conflict -- Loyalists and Republicans -- using their lighters to smoke their respective slogans onto pub restroom ceilings. As the peace process evolved, the markings became less threatening, Carson says.

Similarly, Mary McIntyre's color photographs, which compositionally and by their subject of remove and pensiveness would place well in any contemporary exhibition, offer a second reading to a native. Carson recognizes the sites as being on the University of Ulster campus, a generally safe haven from the country's violence, "where you could go for relative calm."

The "most poignant" works in the exhibition, for Carson, are Aisling O'Beirn's "And Other Storeys," which speak to him broadly of the transience of civilizations and of life itself.

O'Beirn's cardboard architectural models exude a disarming playfulness that sets the viewer up for a reality punch once individual stories are read. "Walker Monument," for example, refers to an 80-foot high statue of the Rev. George Walker, a Protestant governor during the 1688-9 Siege of Derry, erected in 1826 and blown off its site overlooking the town in 1973 by the IRA. Closer to home is "Katrina's Superdome," the New Orleans landmark that became the location of so much human misery in 2005.

Some of the pieces remind Carson of the watchtowers the British army built throughout Northern Ireland. "Everywhere you went as a citizen, you were being overseen." Eventually they became a way of life and were hardly noticed, he says. At one time people wouldn't have imagined a change possible, but now the towers are gone, Carson notes.

"That symbolism [of impermanence] reverberates in the United States," he says, "because of what happened to the towers in New York. Things you think are going to last forever in moments can change. The American psyche has changed since the twin towers [fell]."

Other works range from Sandra Johnston's gut-wrenching video "Something You May Later Rely On" that witness and explore heinous incidents risen from political conflict, to the carousing fellows of Seamus Harahan's short video "Tessies." Michael Hogg and Peter Richards, in "Pivot" and "Take two, little action" respectively, also suggest a world on the cusp, in tentative balance or frozen in time.

Carson feels a "cautious optimism" about Northern Ireland's current political status. Since the Belfast Agreement to share power, the arms struggle has stopped, and Belfast has been transformed into "an exciting place where young people can go out at night," he observes. Such positive directions have deteriorated in the past, "but something tells me this time there's no going back. People have gotten tired of the futility of war."

Previously scheduled talks between Unionists and Republicans were been put on hold after the former brought a new condition to the table that had to be met before negotiations continued. "If Ian Paisley says yes this time, that will be a massive historical shift," Carson says, and a point at which "cautious optimism" might move toward "renewed confidence."

"Tides" continues through March 30. For information, call 412-268-3618 or visit www.cmu.edu/millergallery.