VISIONARY INSTITUTE
Multispecies Visionary Institute exhibition, and program of events at Gymnasium Gallery,
The Maltings., Berwick upon Tweed, UK, July-September 2021
THIS PAGE IS STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION
MVI Pop up exhibitions
17 – 24 July
Allicin (Ponytail) and Rita’s Sampler
Hannah Christy and Madeline Wynne
Working with food, text, clothing, photography, and sculpture Hannah Christy responds to the context of ART through the relationship between things and sensations, ponytails and ribbons, appendages and bee stings.
Madeline Wynne’s Rita’s Sampler is a painstakingly crafted act and product of idolatry that serves the figure of Rita Hayworth, featuring hand-stitched extracts of Rita’s Diary, a text written that analyses her dual existence, translated into the artists ‘made-up’ language.
24 July – 7 Aug
Telling the Bees
Rosalind McLachlan
The close link between bees and the household or family of their owners is a feature of northern mythology; the custom of ‘telling the bees’ was a common practice in rural communities of many north European countries, including Great Britain.
Using the custom of ‘telling the bees’ as a starting point, McLachlan re-visions the role of the (non-human) bee in rituals for the (human) dead.
3 – 8 August
Bee Communications
A durational choreographic performance by Alex Borys taking place in the gallery throughout the week.
Alex will invite visitors to join her in movement and contemplation and embody ways to communicate with bees and wider multispecies worlds that support any swarm.
7 – 17 August
The One Sun (The South African version)
Alicja Swiatlon
Alicja Swiatlon’s artworks grow from close observation and immersion in the natural world. The One Sun is inspired by the experience of the warmth of the South African sun, but inevitably such a memory contains the accumulated experiences of all other sunshine, be it in Poland or Canada. Like bees, we are all creatures of the sun, orienting ourself to it for general life sustenance.
'For the Bridled and the Groomed'. are a selection of artworks by Lois Robins, that are a reflection on one individual's response to an event that overturned their world, represented here as votive offerings to petition Nature on their behalf.
14 – 28 August
Active Specimens and The Weighting of The Heart
Naomi Bailey-Cooper and Catherine Sarah Young
Naomi Bailey-Cooper’s Active Specimens is a textile work inspired by the way in which scientists record exotic animal life in rainforests that often includes the use of a euthanized specimens.
Catherine Sarah Young exhibits human heart sculptures cast out of ashes and other organic remains from the Australian bushfires.
28 August – 5 September
The Threads of Venue
Bridget Kennedy
The Threads of Venus is a set of textile samples showing the processes that two very different materials go through in order to be used as a fibre for weaving: one is nettle, on the other discarded electrical cable. In a future when resources are dwindling might the humble nettle become as valuable a commodity as copper?