Emma Dabiri admits that travel is in her blood. Now, as leaving the country becomes increasingly fraught in the global pandemic, she finds a new way of seeing the world through selected artworks at Ulster Museum in Northern Ireland's capital, Belfast.
From the etchings of Giovanni Piranesi to the beautiful work of Doris Rosenthal, her tour takes in the splendour of Rome as well as Sri Lanka, Morocco, Mexico and even Antarctica. She examines how artists brought to the UK their vision of the world and metaphorically transported art lovers across continents before the invention of the jet engine.
As part of the BBC's #MuseumPassion season, the Dublin-born social historian takes us around the gallery highlighting how depictions of far flung landscapes and cultures were sometimes overly romanticised or blatantly sexualised. And how, for many, travel in previous centuries was less about tourism and more about emigration, saying goodbye to loved ones probably forever. While our passports remain largely unused, let artists show you their world beyond our shores.
