Tag Archives: art and design

Sonia Mehra Chawla presents ‘Entanglements of Time and Tide’

‘Entanglements of Time & Tide [No.1]’ by Sonia Merha Chawla.

North Sea reflections reveal the art of science in new exhibition by internationally renowned Indian artist Sonia Mehra Chawla

Living artworks, historical scientific material, video, and new commissions in print follow intensive residencies in Scotland and mark artist’s debut solo exhibition in the United Kingdom.

The worlds of art, science and technology are set to collide at Edinburgh Printmakers this April.

Celebrated Indian artist and researcher Sonia Mehra Chawla presents Entanglements of Time and Tide, a new exhibition exploring entanglements of ecology industry, culture, politics and
aesthetics.

‘Entanglements of Time & Tide [No.5]’ by Sonia Merha Chawla.

Mehra Chawla’s artistic practice explores notions of selfhood, nature, ecology, sustainability and
conservation. For Entanglements of Time and Tide she spent two years on three intensive residencies at the Marine Scotland Laboratory in Aberdeen, the ASCUS Laboratory at Summerhall and Edinburgh Printmakers.

The result is an all encompassing exhibition featuring new commissions in print, video, living artworks of micro-biological organisms and representations of historical scientific material.

Part of the Edinburgh International Science Festival and part of Year of Coasts and Waters 2020 programme, Entanglements of Time and Tide explores how we can make our future more liveable.

Reflecting on the human impact on our environment and in particular effects on microorganisms by capital-intensive heavy industry and anthropogenic activities, the exhibition is in two parts.

‘Entanglements of Time & Tide [No.6]’ by Sonia Merha Chawla.

Part I looks at the mysterious and enigmatic life of planktons providing several entry points to understanding larger global issues associated with the world’s oceans. Part II explores the impact of technological obsolescence, the drive to consumption and the impacts of the waste created by these technofossils.

Speaking ahead of the exhibition opening Sonia Mehra Chawla said:

“Polluted, overfished, abused and threatened by extractive forces, the largest living space on Earth is rapidly declining. Human-induced environmental change threatens multi-species endurance, livability and continuity. We are all interconnected by shared ecologies and entanglements with our other than human kin makes life probable. Can humans and other species continue to inhabit the earth together in collaboration?

‘Entanglements of Time & Tide [No.4]’ by Sonia Merha Chawla.

We live in a time of many urgencies and I feel we require cross disciplinary curiosity of what constitutes life on this planet and what our place is in this universe. This exhibition has been created to act as a starting point for these conversations between artists and scientists, those in industry and the wider community.”

Running parallel to Entanglements of Time and Tide in Gallery 2 is Speculative Bubbles: Jess Ramm, a new show from Glasgow based printmaker Jessica Ramm.

With the aid of a children’s chemistry set and a selection of household chemicals, Ramm presents a series of prints, that evidence everyday magic, produced on a residency at Edinburgh Printmakers in 2019.

Ramm’s chemical and physical experiments propose alternative ways of navigating humanity’s symbiotic relationship with the material environment while paying particular attention to the extravagance of human aspiration.

Listings Information

Entanglements of Time & Tide: Sonia Mehra Chawla

Edinburgh Printmakers, Gallery 1, Castle Mills, 1 Dundee Street, ​Edinburgh EH3 9FP
+44 (0) 131 557 2479

Tuesday – Sunday 10am – 5pm

04 April to 05 July 2020 (Science festival 4th – 19th April)

http://www.edinburghprintmakers.co.uk/

Speculative Bubbles: Jess Ramm
Gallery 2, Castle Mills
Tuesday – Sunday 10am – 5pm
04 April to 11 July 2020 (Science festival 4th – 19th April)
http://www.edinburghprintmakers.co.uk/

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Sonia Merha Chawla

Sonia Mehra Chawla is an artist based in New Delhi, India. She received her BFA in 2001 and MFA in 2004–2005 from Delhi University’s College of Art, New Delhi. Chawla has an interdisciplinary practice as an artist, photographer and researcher. Her artistic practice explores notions of selfhood, nature, ecology, sustainability, and conservation.

Mehra Chawla’s practice is process oriented and research based, with a focus on specific locations and micro histories. Through her artistic projects, she examines how local places contribute to global changes, what drives those changes, how these contributions change over time, how and where scale matters, what are the interactions between macro-structures and micro-agencies, and how efforts at mitigation and adaptation can be locally initiated and adopted.

Through her practice, Mehra Chawla explores, dissects, re-examines and re-envisions spaces that exist at the intersections of art and science, social and natural realms, self and the other, focusing on the important dimensions of human engagement with and within nature, ranging from the built-environment to the ‘wilderness’, and human and non-human narratives and interrelations in the Anthropocene. The artist lives and works in New Delhi, India.

www.soniamehrachawla.in

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Inspired by Trees with Mall Galleries

‘Cold Autumn Walk on the Downs’ by David Brammeld RBA, Acrylic, 41cm x 51cm.

Inspired by Trees

The Royal Society of British Artists 303rd Annual Exhibition features a forest full of trees.

20 to 29 February 2020, 10am to 5pm
Mall Galleries, The Mall, London SW1
Admission £5, 50% off with Art Fund pass, Free for Friends of Mall Galleries and under 25’s

Mall Galleries is happy to offer my Readers Free Entry for Two to the exhibition when quoting this publication at the gallery desk (normal price £10)

Visitors to the Mall Galleries will shortly be able to experience a ‘forest experience’ as the Royal Society of British Artists highlights the potent inspiration trees provide for artists in its annual exhibition opening 20 February. Two clusters of tree images showcase a wide variety of styles, locations and moods, in highlighted sections of the show which overall features more than 500 works on myriad subjects. Trees captivate artists and fascinate the viewer with their life-force, symbolism and extraordinary architectural variety and beauty.

Some works featured are portraits of individual trees, such as Mark Welland’s Reach For The Sky II, which is part of a series commemorating a 300 year old oak tree finally felled by storm Katie in 2016; some scenes of woodlands, trees on the horizon or trees in the garden offering shelter on a sunny day.

‘Reach For The Sky II’ by Mark Welland, Mixed media, 21cm x 21cm.
Urban life also features. Melissa Scott-Miller RBA RP NEAC, known for depicting London’s streets says of the capital’s trees: “In London the trees are often restricted by the buildings and paving slabs, but they have still kept going, their branches making beautiful patterns and shapes, the lichen on the bark has spread on to the rooftops and brickwork, in summer the canopy of leaves produce areas of shade, and they are a haven for wildlife, birds, squirrels even domestic cats, the changes of colour and shape they display through the seasons lift the spirits, trees are essential to city living!”

Beautiful urban landscape by Melissa Scott-Miller RBA RP NEAC
Environmental themes emerge strongly. While many of these paintings of tree suggest at themes of longevity, ideas of mortality and of the fragility of the environment are never far away. Gary Cook’s watercolour 1058: Melbury Beacon No8 stands as a record of the 1,058 UK species associated with ash trees, ranging from beetles to birds, lichens to mammals. Some of these species are written into the background. All will be affected when we lose up to 90% of the UK’s 70 million ash trees from dieback disease. Of the 1,058 species 40 of them live only on ash trees. The Centre Barred Sallow moth is one of those 40. Research is ongoing into replanting these trees with ash bred with tolerance to the infection.

‘1058: Melbury Beacon No. 8’ by Gary Cook, Watercolour & charcoal, 28 x 39 cm.
Cheryl Culer PPPS RBA suggests we should all try our hand at drawing trees: “Trees are great to draw and as long as they get thinner as they go up and the branches get skinnier as they reach out, then even the simplest scribble can be a tree.“

Alongside the exhibition, member artists will be demonstrating their techniques and there are a number of opportunities to join in; including a free drawing session where you will be serenaded by Classical Harpist Eleanor Dunsdon.
Visit www.malllgalleries.org.uk for a full list of the events taking place.

The Royal Society of British Artists (RBA)  is dedicated to promoting the highest standards of skill, concept and draughtsmanship in painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing.

The exhibition is sourced from member artists and through open submission, to bring together works of the highest standard in an eclectic mix of style and media. Most works are for sale, with prices starting from £140.

We are happy to offer your Readers Free Entry for Two to the exhibition when quoting your publication at the gallery desk (normal price £10)

Royal Society of British Artists 303rd Annual Exhibition 2020
20 to 29 February, 10am to 5pm
Mall Galleries, The Mall, London SW1
www.mallgalleries.org.uk
Header image: David Brammeld RBA Cold Autumn Walk on the Downs
Copyright © 2020 Mall Galleries, All rights reserved.

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Federation of British Artists
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