Kingdom of Haven | Bernie Mc Adam at Flax Gallery, Theatre at the Mill, Newtownabbey

Date/Time
Date(s) - 16/10/2021 - 29/10/2021

Location
Flax Gallery at Theatre at the Mill, Newtownabbey

Website

Email
bernie.mcadam@gmail.com

Categories...

• Exhibition
• Northern Ireland
• Reopening

Kingdom of Haven Bernie Mc Adam Flax Gallery at Theatre at the Mill, Newtownabbey.
16 – 29 October 2021

Traces of our encounter with many others in our close prenatal proximity with our becoming mother are ever present in our subconscious and find visibility in artwork, insinuating themselves into this realm sometimes through the medium of dreams. Shadows of entities, lurking in the forests of the memory, fleeting images of ghosts, known and unknown, appear in dreams that seem so real yet whose tableau cannot be retained, slipping into oblivion moments after the cold reality of wakefulness intrudes upon the drama, the stories unfolded by the cast of the reverie rest tantalisingly close yet as elusive to total recall as the reformation of a dandelion whose florets become parachutes, floating away in a gentle breeze.

In those moments where consciousness emerges, the soothing touch of the cool texture of a white sheet offers solace and refuge, the curtain to the threshold of the day, deferring engagement with inevitable routine. The gently folding swathes of cotton enfold limbs, its soothing texture arousing the resurgence of long forgotten childhood sensations of care, warmth and reassurance. Yet the duality of purpose of this mantle evokes unsettling imagery summoning a daunting prescience of the final slow and silent settling of the winding sheet.

A scintilla of the essence of the reverie lingers long into the day initiating profound oneiric experiences. In the home, an intimate space in which to consider these wisps of presence is key to recapturing the story, revelling in the luxuriance of daydreaming, sometimes finding solace in meditation of what is and what was. Places where familiar textural patterns adorn the walls and thwart notions of bedlam, affording some level of comfort and security, facilitating imagined control over one’s fate, it’s warm familiarity eliciting a nostalgic journey in a realm of tranquility.

The Kingdom of Haven, that tiny principality of being and place that fosters our intimate relationship between ourselves and the world, where nostalgia and reverie nestle side by side, where dreaming now is displaced by the allure of repetition, the scourge of surveillance, the incessant encroachment on quiet, solitary domains by the glare of ice cold artic blue.

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