Saturday 12th May 2018
Today I paid a visit to Mostyn Gallery to see the current exhibitions. I was particularly interested in the Leviathan exhibition by Shezad Dawood.
Shezad Dawood
Leviathan is an episodic narrative around notions of borders, mental health and marine welfare issues of foremost concern, resonating profoundly with both coastal locations and contemporary life.
A ten-part film cycle that will unfold over the next three years, the work draws connections between human activity and marine ecology.
Three films have already been premiered in Venice, in conjunction with the 57th Art Biennale, with a fourth to be released in early September 2018.In dialogue with a wide range of marine biologists, oceanographers, political scientists, neurologists and trauma specialists, Leviathan explores interconnections between these fields of work and will be presented through sculpture, textiles, museum specimens, films, conversations and online resource material.
As part of the first iteration of Leviathan after its Venice debut, Dawood will also show a newly commissioned painting drawing upon this specific context, and work with community groups based on the coastal location asking questions about how these issues might come to evolve in a future 20 to 50 years from now, and what that future might look like.
The exhibition is curated by Alfredo Cramerotti, MOSTYN Director, in dialogue with the artist.
Mike Perry – Land and Sea
I really enjoyed seeing the work produced by Mike Perry for Land and Sea and could see a strong connection with the current work of Simone Williams. Pretty sobering to reflect on the amount of discarded items that are washed up on our shores.
Mike Perry’s work engages with significant and pressing environmental issues, in particular the tension between human activity and interventions in the natural environment, and the fragility of the planet’s ecosystems.
This major new exhibition brings together recent bodies of work addressing how the natural biodiversity of landscapes and marine environments is undermined and made toxic by human neglect, agricultural mismanagement and the pursuit of short-term profit at the expense of long-term sustainability.
Combining conceptual aesthetics with a pressing concern for the marine environment, Perry’s images shed a different light on the health of the seascapes one might see in tourist brochures.
Môr Plastig (welsh for ‘Plastic Sea’) is an ongoing body of work that classifies objects washed up by the sea into groupings; bottles, shoes, grids, abstracts, and others. By using a high-resolution camera to capture the surface detail, the artist allows the viewer to ‘read’ markings and scars etched into the objects by the ocean over months and, in some cases, years. The viewer is intrigued and challenged by how a polluting object can be so aesthetically appealing.
In Perry’s words, “in addition to seeing these pieces as symbols of over-consumption and disregard for the environment, I also see them as evidence of the beauty and power of nature to sculpt our world”.
Land/Sea is originally produced by Ffotogallery, Cardiff, and curated by David Drake, Ffotogallery, and Ben Borthwick, Plymouth Arts Centre. The exhibition in MOSTYN has been developed in dialogue with Adam Carr, Visual Arts Programme Curator, and Alfredo Cramerotti, Director. The accompanying publication includes contributions from the writers George Monbiot and Skye Sherwin.
Estella Scholes
Having previously attended a book making workshop with Estella, I was particularly keen to see this exhibit of her work and was very inspired by what I saw.
Our series of solo exhibitions celebrating contemporary printmaking continues in Gallery 6 with Estella Scholes.
Many of Estella’s references are gathered from direct observation whilst wandering along the shorelines of North Wales, in particular the Llyn Peninsula, where evidence of an almost vanished industrial past can be found. Broken bits of old jetties, rusted metal and other manmade debris linger amongst the stones and more familiar beach treasures.
She is intrigued by the ambiguity of natural and manmade forms, eroded almost to abstraction by the elements. Transitory arrangements of colour, texture and shape endlessly appear and disappear in the liminal space between the tides. These fleeting impressions linger in the mind, to be further abstracted and rearranged by memory.
All prints are for sale framed or unframed, and the Collectorplan scheme allows you to buy unique pieces of contemporary art and craft over a period of 12 months interest free.
She's a Fine Artist 
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