Ocean covers over 70% of our planet! 70%+ includes multi-media art exhibitions by Kyra Clegg and Marysia Lachowicz at Kirkcaldy Art Gallery 30 Nov 2019 – 15 March 2020. Work on a VACMA funded collaborative project about the Fife coast’s outdoor bathing pools was the initial trigger which brought the artists together and which has since developed into two exhibitions on contemporary art and the ocean.
Other Voices reflects upon our impact on a world entangled in the many strands of oceans past present and future. From deep time fossils, stones and whales to the beach ruins of World War II Kyra Clegg’s work uses video, and mixed media installations to explore traces of more than human voices.
Beyond the Surface is an exploration of the Scottish coast. Images of rock pools, seaweeds, rock formations and man-made structures capture the variety and beauty of the coastal environment but also hint at the potentially destructive nature of the sea. Marysia Lachowicz uses a variety of photographic techniques including digital, analogue black and white and cyanotypes.
Marysia’s work responds to place, memory and story. It is site specific and process driven. She’s interested in the marks people leave on the landscape and how these change over time. Previous projects include documenting the story of the First Independent Polish Parachute Brigade formed in Fife during WW2; and the story of the house her family lived in for 60 years.
Over the last two years Marysia has been photographing the abandoned tidal bathing pools and capturing the transitory nature of the landscape, its structures and its impact on those who visit it.
By using the wet cyanotype process, it is possible to interact with the environment in a very physical way to record abstract and unpredictable impressions of nature and the watery world of our coastline. Each image is unique and specific to the moment and place in which it was made.
Marysia spent a month in Shetland on a self-organised residency at The Booth in Scalloway, an artist’s studio run by Wasps Artists Studio, Glasgow. Situated in a beautiful location on the waterfront in Scalloway, The Booth was constructed in 2001 by Scalloway Waterfront Trust on the site of an old fisherman’s store for use by visiting artists. This was Marysia’s first visit to Shetland but hopefully will not be her last as she fell in love with the wonderful scenery and the tranquility of the islands. With so much more to explore she hopes to return soon.
After a long break from black and white photography, Shetland was an inspiring place to rekindle her interest in analogue and alternative photographic processes.
Marysia would like to thank Northlink Ferries and the Richard and Siobhan Coward Foundation for supporting her work.