Charles Avery

Charles Avery

Untitled (Sea Monster)

Charles Avery’s sculpture ‘Untitled (Sea Monster)’ forms part of his lifelong project The Islanders, a detailed description of a fictional world that operates in parallel to our own universe, realised in drawing, painting, sculpture and text. Charles explains that the sea monster got its name simply because the Island inhabitant Only McPhew found it in the water. Accompanying the monster are paintings of blue dots, inspired by pre-Socratic descriptions of atoms falling through the void and described by another islander as ‘perfectly singular forms, without size, without significance’. These paintings provide a contrast to the dead monster in the physical world.

Charles’ body of work is rooted in his own life and upbringing on the Isle of Mull. A major solo exhibition, The People and Things of Onomatopoeia, was presented at Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh in 2015.

Courtesy of the Artist and Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh / Grimm Gallery, Amsterdam

Location

Burgh Chambers,
Crossgate,
Cupar,
KY15 4LS

Open: Saturdays 10am – 6pm; Sunday 10am – 5pm; Weekdays 10am – 7pm.
Please note: This building is not wheelchair accessible.

Charles Avery’s ‘sea monster’

‘I say Sea Monster, not because this creature displays any characteristics that would make it adept in the water, but because that is where Only McPhew found it, washing around in the shallows of The Memory of Conchious-Ness. It may have wandered there from the planes in search of food, and died of exhaustion, or fallen into a ravine and be carried down by the river into the estuary.’

– Charles Avery

Charles Avery’s giant ‘sea monster’ sculpture inhabits the first floor of the town’s Burgh Chambers, accompanied by a series of paintings of blue dots likened to ‘atoms falling through the void’ – a must for younger visitors to the festival.

Venue:

Burgh Chambers
Crossgate
Cupar, KY15 4LS

Open: Saturdays 10am – 6pm; Sunday 10am – 5pm; Weekdays 10am – 7pm