In response to this year’s Cupar Arts Festival ‘liminal’ theme, CAF artist curators and invited guests have created an intriguing exhibition of drawings and prints reflecting liminality in all its aspects.
Defined as a occupying a position at a threshold, or relating to the transitional or initial stage of a process, the theme allows for a variety of responses and interpretations – perhaps involving changing states in the natural world, transitions in the role of a historic site, personal transformation, or anthropological ideas of ritual and myth.
The Festival itself is already incorporating one example of liminality – the summer solstice or longest day, where one phase ends and another begins.
In ‘Liminal’, the artwork ranges across subjects as varied as the transition to motherhood in Amy Whiten’s ‘Mamma’, the process of change within the city of Kampala, Uganda in Bronwen Sleigh’s ‘Mobutu Road’, or the goddess Juno mid-metamorphosis in Dean Melbourne’s ‘Juno (study)’.
Leigh Chorlton’s ‘untitled’ is a comedic take on the seven stages of man, poised at the tipping point between looking forward to looking back, while ‘Retrieve’ by Denise Zygadlo explores the subconscious and the movement from one phase of life into another. Kirsty Whiten’s ‘Shame Stepping / Strength Stepping’ draws on anthropology and psychology, unpicking a misremembered ritual requiring shame and strength.
Jake Bee addresses timelessness in ‘2-BIT Grayscale’, while Bea Last looks at the repetitive and progressive aspects of time in ‘Marking Time IIIVX’. Kate MacKay’s ‘Rituals of Creation’ is composed of fragments from her diary and sketchbook; souvenirs snatched from the threshold as creative work comes into existence.
These are just a few examples of the thought-provoking work on display – come along and view all the pieces in the exhibition at the County Buildings, St Catherine Street, Cupar, and the Festival Hub, Castlehill (East Bridge), Cupar.
Open: Saturdays 10am – 6pm; Sunday 10am – 5pm; Weekdays 10am – 7pm
Artists showing work in the exhibition include Katherine Aarrestad, Jonathan Baxter, Jake Bee, Paul Charlton, Leigh Chorlton, Jean Duncan, Emily Fong, Gillian Gibson, Sarah Gittins, Jessica Harrison, Bea Last, Kirsty Lorenz, Fiona McDonald, Kate Mackay, Dean Melbourne, Gayle Nelson, O’Brien & Chiu, Alison Philp, Sharon Quigley, Rowan Paton Risby, Joanne Richardson, Louise Ritchie, Paulina Sandberg, Cécile Simonis, Bronwen Sleigh, Donald Spy, Amy Whiten, Kirsty Whiten, Amy Winstanley and Denise Zygadlo.
Image Credits: Leigh Chorlton, ‘Untitled’; Rowan Paton, ‘Mirror’; Cecile Simonis, ‘The Observatory’