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Abbas Akhavan

30 April - 2 October 2022

This commission will introduce audiences in Scotland to Abbas Akhavan’s work, his international reputation having been formed in Canada, Germany, USA, UAE, Colombia, Turkey, Ireland and England. Akhavan’s practice has been deeply influenced by the specificity of particular sites in which he engages with architectures, economies and taxonomies. His work addresses social, economic and political concerns through the lens of ecology, animal and plant life. Following his habitual pattern of on-site research he will spend time on Bute in early 2022. Working with natural and ancient materials he will realise a large installation of site-specific works exploring the history of Mount Stuart and its landscape, with the help of local communities to create the work and using locally sourced materials. There will be associated talks and an educational programme accompanying the exhibition on Bute and in Glasgow.

Pacing the Void: Rhona Warwick Paterson and Eve Mutso

Summer 2022

Artist and writer Rhona Warwick Paterson and performer Eve Mutso have been commissioned to create a new piece of live art which will be performed in Mount Stuart’s Marble Hall under the magnificent painted ceiling which depicts a star map of the night sky. Emblazoned with accurately placed crystals, charting the constellations, this ceiling will be the starting point for the creative exploration of myth, muse and shamanic movement. The resulting work will combine text, soundscape and performance to create a dance-poem entitled Pacing the Void; a reference to an ancient Daoist visionary ritual exploring the borderlands between science, stories, astronomy and the poetic imagination.

Recalling what may be an in-house myth of a planned but unrealised mirrored table in the centre of the hall, the artists envisage the potential of using a mirrored dance floor: creating a vision of the performer dancing through the skyscape. For the sound element of the work, Warwick Paterson will create a text based on astronomy and myth researched from the Mount Stuart libraries. She intends to share the resulting poem with a sound artist to create the auditory illusion of the spoken words being relayed from within the constellation of Ursa Major (The Great Bear).

Rhona Warwick Paterson is an artist and writer from Glasgow. She was awarded the Scottish Book Trust Prize for Poetry in 2018 and has been appointed the Associate Artist for Gallery of Modern Art (2019-2021) and Research Fellow for Theatrum Mundi, London.

Eve Mutso is a freelance dancer & choreographer and former Principal Dancer of Scottish Ballet. She is currently working at the Estonian Music and Theatre Academy and is preparing a new work with Glasgow based dance company Indepen-dance.

Gather And Arrange: Arrange Whatever Pieces Come Your Way

Continues until Spring 2022

A partnership between Sheelagh Boyce and Annabelle Harty, Arrange Whatever Pieces Come Your Way focuses on a shared interest in architecture, art, food and fashion through the creation of handsewn, architectural quilts and reconstructed fabric works. These are put together from personal loved collections of clothing from friends and family, each provenance significant through the threads of history and emotional attachment. While taking inspiration from traditional American and Japanese quilt making techniques, the pair are not bound to these disciplines and delight in going against the grain.

For an exhibition in 2021, a series of Arrange Whatever Pieces Come Your Way quilts were positioned throughout Mount Stuart, shown over selected pieces of furniture, and placed in the window alcoves along the sea-facing façade of the house where they were caught by the pools of natural light.

The project also involves communities and individuals across Bute who have been invited to make their own quilts from their own old and cherished garments. Participating makers will gather used clothes, made special by the person that wore them, the occasion for which they were worn or the patina of wear. These will go on show at Mount Stuart in Spring 2022.

A forthcoming publication, due to be released in April 2022, will capture all aspects of the project and include images by Lynette Garland and an essay by Charlie Porter, fashion journalist and author of What Artists Wear.

Emerging Artist Residency

Mount Stuart Trust is delighted to announce that a call out for an emerging artist to work in residency will also go live in summer 2022. Further details about the work of 2021 artist Kaya Fraser will also be announced in 2022.