Preview Friday 12th Feb 2016 – 7pm
Exhibition continues until 12th March
Open Wednesday – Saturday 12 – 5pm
Admission Free
Mysterium tremendum et fascinans is an overwhelming physical and mental dread experienced when in the presence of the uncanny or divine; a mystery that repels, but which also attracts and fascinates, inspiring awe and beauty.
This exhibition brings together different strands of Vicary’s practice collecting recent and previously unseen work.
Both dreadful and fascinating, the two multi-layered animations featured in this exhibition invite the viewer to explore an intense semi-fictive landscape of observation, collection and devastation.
In Taxonomy the engraved triumphs of a scientific and colonial empire are repurposed into a cyclic love triangle. Large-scale animations use the life and works of Victorian naturalist Edmund Selous as a metaphor to consider ideas of data collection, industrialised violence and our human-centric viewpoint.
These themes continue in Ascension Ceiling; inspired by Baroque illusionistic painting and exploring the omnipotent viewpoint of drone operators. It features audio testimony from former U.S. Air Force pilot Brandon Bryant who served as a sensor operator for the Predator program from 2007 to 2011. The work was created as a response to the continued testing of military drones in West Wales near the Artist’s home.
Seán Vicary originally studied painting but became increasingly seduced by the possibilities of working with animation. After moving to West Wales he forged a new practice building upon his painting/printmaking skills and embracing emerging digital technologies; his subsequent moving image pieces have been broadcast in the UK and exhibited worldwide. The artist was the Ivor Davies Award winner at the National Eisteddfod of Wales 2015.