Bròn | Sorrow
Bròn | Sorrow
Bròn means sorrow or grief in Scottish Gaelic. A feeling that carries itself throughout my understanding and connection to people, memory and place. These works speak to sadness, loss and psychogeography. Longing for a place or time which one can never return to. Going Away is a poem written by my Grandmother. By the time I had the chance to read her poetry, she was lost to dementia. This particular poem resonates deeply with me and throughout my work. As you will hear in the video piece, I read it sitting by the sea at low tide amongst seaweeds and oyster catchers on an unusually warm day on the Isle of Mull, each time I read these words I understand her sense of longing more profoundly than before.
Film Poem: Going Away, A Poem by Janet M. MacLeod read by Katie Harris-MacLeod. Duration, 0.42 seconds, 2023.
1. Shadow Self and the Egg, Bald Rock, 2022.
2. Burnt Forest, Boonoo Boonoo, 2022.
3. Water, Yugambeh Country, 2022.
4. Swollen Belly, Bald Rock (Granite), 2022.
5. Skeleton Trees, Hinze Dam, 2021.
6. Egg and Skeleton Trees, Bald Rock, 2022.
7. Wahlmoorum, 2022.
Bròn | Sorrow was a part of a group exhibition at the Butter Factory Arts Centre in Cooroy.
NOW, curated by first time curator Odessa Mahony-de Vries, is a group exhibition featuring, installation, sound, and video. NOW explores the physicality of the body, and the materiality of nature. The augmented scale of the works; their sensory tactility through texture, mark making, scent and sound create a strong physical presence and a familiarity due to their grounding in nature. Simultaneous high-volume sound and hints of mortality and grief disrupt the sense of comfort and invite the audience to be present in both life’s beauty and pain.
Together, the artists embody what it means to be present in the here and now, in their effort to return to a nature where the mind and body function as one. Artists include Sharna Barker, Cholena Drew Hughes, Katie Harris-Macleod, Chucho Bruno, Samuel Markovic, Merinda Davies and Simone Eisler.
