‘Utopian Realism’ is an exploration of rural utopianism, idealism and industrialism in the North East of England and Mid Wales by the artists Mair Hughes and Bridget Kennedy.

Friday 28 October 2011

Views From Inside The Wise Building



A few shots of our digital collages in situ at the WISE Lecture Theatre...

Podcast from The Quarry


During our exhibition at The Centre for Alternative Technology (or 'The Quarry' as it is sometimes called) we were interviewed by Claire Bracegirdle about the experience of working there and the effect it has had on our art practice. Click on the link below to listen to the podcast...

http://blog.cat.org.uk/2011/10/27/thursday-podcast-interview-with-mair-hughes-and-bridget-kennedy-artists-in-residence/

Sunday 23 October 2011

Scientific Stranger Exhibition Opens

Preview: Sunday 23rd 5pm - 7pm

Closing Event: Friday 28th 5pm - 7pm

WISE Lecture Theatre, Centre for Alternative Technology, nr. Machynlleth, Powys

Refreshments provided

All welcome

Entry free during Preview and Closing Event but at other times CAT entry fees apply

Exhibition runs from 24th -30th October, 10-4 pm

Artists Bridget Kennedy and Mair Hughes are exhibiting a series of large-scale digital collages and a video animated mineral 'spa box', inspired by their research in to radical experiments that have taken place in Mid Wales and North East England. It is the first exhibition to take place inside the beautiful rammed earth lecture theatre in the WISE building at The Centre for Alternative Technology, opening with a preview on Sunday the 23rd from 5 - 7pm.

The artworks Bridget and Mair have created reflect their encounters with Ecology, Geology, Phrenology, Futurology and some very unusual social engineering initiatives. Their artistic research has found them exploring a North Pennine lead mine, helping to disassemble a wind turbine at the Centre for Alternative Technology and rummaging in the Newtown archives of industrialist turned social reformer, Robert Owen.

Reinterpreting progressive and utopian ideas from the time of the industrial revolution such as communitarianism and educational reform, the two artists look for parallels to what is happening today, as we envisage another big societal shift, this time towards a less exploitative future.