Gallery in a Phone Box?!

Yes - it's in!

Thanks to the Cellardyke Trust I have an installation in Gallery 495, a former phone box in a charming location close to the harbour in the old fishing village of Cellardyke in the East Neuk of Fife.
Preparing work for this came with challenges such as size constraints, how to display pieces, the dominant red colour, restricted visibility through the panes of glass and susceptibility to condensation.

I decided such a site specific installation would have to be more strident than my usual work simply to catch the viewers' attention.  Plus recent concerning news that the Civil Court's 2023 decision that the Scottish Government's approach to scallop dredging is unlawful led to an SG appeal on 20 March. The outcome is pending. The thought that the 3 Mile Bottom-Trawling limit which until the 1980s protected the sea-bed around Scotland may not be re-instated simply made me see RED!

So I transformed some dried kelp stipes and holdfasts into red, writhing shapes. Are they struggling or dancing? It depends what you see. Seeing things differently is helped by my continuing use of mirror in my work to offer an alternative ways of seeing and also symbolic of human vanity.  Depending where the viewer stands, they may also see themselves entangled with the kelp.

A broken mirror frame without glass I found on one of my beach-combing walks takes us out of the picture - a way of de-centering the human and a reminder of our interdependency on the natural world of which we are just a part. We need the sea more than it needs us. 

Hope folk enjoy the installation!