Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
[enlarge]
Cath Keay, ‘Tobermory Cal Mac Building’, sculpture in foundation wax, after modification in working beehive, 2006.
An Tobar, Isle of Mull
3 August – 29 September
Reviewed by: Juliet Knight
Entering Cath Keay’s exhibition the first thing one notices is the smell of honey, which wafts out through the gallery space. Inside, six rather formal-looking plinths display beeswax sculptures, each a model of a 1930s utilitarian building in the International Style. Keay makes the models from foundation wax, then places each one inside a beehive for anything between one and three months, allowing the bees to alter the work as they see fit. The results are unpredictable, and demonstrate Keay’s willingness to allow the work to develop independently, intervening only as far as deciding how long to leave it inside the hive.
Bees function as both meaning and method within Keay’s work, as she also draws parallels between human society and the structure of the beehive. Her choice of buildings from the 1930s reflects an interest in the idealism of that period, and the utopian view of the future that emerged between the world wars. Bees have also been idealised throughout history, used as a symbol of purity and self-sacrifice. In breaking down her models – or building them up, as the case may be – the bees’ work reflects the simultaneous building up and breaking down of society in the interwar period. The title piece of the exhibition is a lightbox formed from honeycomb, with the words ‘A New Destiny Is Prepared’ marked out using lead shot. The bold, idealistic nature of the text reads like a piece of political dictat, but instead we learn that it is simply a random sentence taken from a beekeeping manual. Thus Keay likes to overturn our assumptions, combining meaning with method in an unexpected and unpredictable way.
Another work, Silk Moths, features ceramic sculptures of silk moths, with a video of the insects’ courtship displays and an accompanying soundtrack. The piece continues Keay’s interest in insects, but this time focusing on a creature that is redundant in nature, only functioning as a slave to human beings. In contrast to the bees, the silk moth represents the futility of some aspects of human activity – the society that has ‘developed’ to the point where it can no longer exist independently.
Cath Keay’s work succeeds on a number of levels: in visual terms, these are intricate and intelligent pieces that have been produced using an intriguing technique. On a deeper level, the artist invites us to reflect on human society and the paradoxes and threats within it, using a somewhat sinister comparison with the insect world. All in all, plenty of food for thought.
Writer detail:
Juliet Knight
Venue detail:
An Tobar Arts Centre
Argyll Terrace, Tobermory, Isle of Mull PA75 6PB
No one has commented on this article yet, why not be the first?
To post a comment you need to login
Back to top