Helen Dennis – Ephemeral Coast
Preview Friday 7th April 2017 – 8pm
Exhibition continues until 6th May 2017
Open Wednesday – Saturday 12 – 5pm
Admission Free
Brooklyn based Artist Helen Dennis was Mission Gallery’ s Artist in Residence in February 2016, a Jane Phillips Award International Residency in partnership with Elysium Gallery and Residency Unlimited in New York. During her month long residency based in Elysium’s Swansea studio, her research encompassed documentation and exploration of South Wales’ landscape.
Light, architecture and the ephemeral qualities of environments are the subjects of her work. Helen Dennis focuses on places which are continually shaped by their inhabitants, presenting a constant state of flux and kinetic energy.
For Ephemeral Coast the focus of her investigation became the coastline of Port Talbot and Swansea. She creates a new and intricate coastline of the region using layers of imagery of the surrounding industrial architecture iconic to this area, the familiar creature-like architecture morphing and merging with the sea. The effects and remnants of its industrial growth and history, combine with the tension, weight and movement of its changing environment.
The work has been created using a combination of layering still and moving imagery and a perception of familiarity with the area has been created. The viewer is encouraged to imagine the interaction between the layers of transparent images, or visually fill in the mass of intricate imagery, even if it may only be momentarily.
For further information and a full list of participating projects, venues and artists please visit www.missiongallery.co.uk
Ephemeral Coast | www.ephemeralcoast.com
Curated by Celina Jeffery (University of Ottawa, Canada) in partnership with Mission Gallery, Swansea, Ephemeral Coast links the bays of Swansea, Port Talbot and Carmarthen with coastal spaces internationally, including Mauritius, the USA, and Canada. Working with an array of artists, climate change scientists and writers from the humanities, the exhibition seeks to develop a nexus of understanding between art, empathy, and the degradation of the ocean.
Ephemeral Coast presents a series of interconnections between environmental considerations, a succession of embodied creative practices, and shifting regional geographic identities. It frames the coast as a hybrid geography and instigates a series of creative interventions that consider the material and ethical sensibilities of what it means to live and coexist with water, oceanic life, and the matter of waste.
A series of exhibitions will unfold across the region from early 2017 to Spring 2018, involving many partners in the region including; Mission Gallery, Oriel Myrddin, Glynn Vivian, National Waterfront Museum and Swansea College of Art. Each will address a different approach to imaging and imagining the demise of the ocean as witnessed through coastal visuality.