MAC is delighted to welcome Helen O’Brien with her show ‘Temporal Matter’ from 6th – 29th October 2023, with supporting artist Lynne Martin.
Temporal Matter is an installation of holding spaces for materials, organic matter, found objects and abstract, sculptural forms. They sit within an environment which allows them to be valued for their innate qualities, imperfections and presence: a place for matter to be seen and acknowledged for its past, present and future potential.
You’re invited to the opening event on Friday 6th October from 6pm – 8pm.
Helene and Lynne are also hosting an Artist Talk on Saturday 21st October at 6pm. Join Helen & Lynne to share a conversation about their work and their connective interests as creative practitioners. This will be an informal talk discussing the exhibition, alongside sharing insight into their practices and love of fungi.
Helen O’Brien
“I value the process of working with objects and materials to inform what comes from these interactions. This is the place where materials and ideas are changing, transforming, and in flux. Through my work , I create holding spaces for found, borrowed and collected objects and materials to be seen and queried.
I cast discarded organic objects into bronze as I’m fascinated by the alchemical processes of transferring one material into another, as a way of capturing and extending its temporal existence. This process destroys the original object, but is there any part of its essence that still exists in the cast replica?
I’m reminded of museum collections which historically captured and destroyed the living plants, animals and insects they were wanting to share with the wider world, for research and for collections.
The objects I have collected and cast are everyday objects we normally walk past, which are already discarded, decaying ( fungi) and already in a process of breaking down their host objects (trees) – exhibiting these allows them to be seen and valued for their innate qualities and vibrancy.
I find this way of working creates the potential for new ideas and objects to evolve from the dialogue between myself, processes and materials. As with Material Engagement Theory, this work considers how human cognition is formed by our material surroundings and a helpful reminder that we as people, are interdependent and relational objects and beings ourselves”.
Helen’s website: www.helenobrien.com
Follow Helen on Instagram: @hobcreates
Lynne Martin
“I am fascinated by connection and what it means for us in terms of our health and wellbeing, and how it nourishes us to just slow down and take a moment to reconnect with nature and each other. We live in a world that celebrates the individual, but what we need and crave is shared experiences that remind us we live on an abundant planet- your enjoyment of a thing doesn’t diminish mine, when we both stop and listen to or sing a piece of music together or look closely at a mushroom, we both enjoy it a little more for sharing it with the other person.
Nature photography and Scottish folk music and traditions are both parts of my creative practice. I love to help people slow down, notice the beauty in the natural world, and in our culture here in Scotland. In my photography, I am fascinated by form and colour, and mushrooms provide both in spades. Mushrooms are full of contrast. They can be both showy and unnoticeable, appealing and repulsive, strong and delicate, good for you and deadly. They are part of the natural world and yet parts of them look unnatural- their architectural structures looking almost crafted rather than grown.
As a folk musician and nascent tradition bearer, I have taken shows to Edinburgh Fringe and Solas Festival, featured on STV as a Hogmanay Hero, and regularly perform at the Gin Bothy in the idyllic Angus village of Glamis. I have been taking mushroom pictures for a decade, and this is my first exhibition of this work. On my podcast Scotland on Shrooms, I talk with artists, growers, foragers and mycology experts to raise the profile of the wonderful world of mushrooms we have here in Scotland”.
Follow Lynne on Instagram: @scottishmushroompodcast and @lynnedotm
