Aglæca, Dread and Awe is a joint exhibition from 4 local artists, currently members of Southport Contemporary Arts (SCA), which explores how nature has influenced mythological narratives.
Artists Serah Stringer, Becky Atherton, Marion Bayliss and Tiago Da Cruz, highlight in Aglaeca, Dread and Awe, the magical stories powered by past social feelings of tremendous intensity. These moods, coupled with insecurities of circumstance, gave rise to all sorts of superstitions and folk stories, which attempted to justify natural occurrences. The exhibition displays an individual interpretation of this mythology, singularly presented by each artist.
Serah Stringer is multimedia artist from Maltese heritage currently residing in Southport following the conclusion of an MA in Fine Art at LJMU. Serah’s practice highlights the artist’s exploration of the connections present in the natural world and its connections with the manmade plane. Serah’s multi-discipline installation focuses in the habitual collection of objects and a desire to intervene in and build with organic forms.
Serah, who has found the people of Liverpool friendly and welcoming to outsiders, firmly believes their behaviour to have originated through interactions across the last century as a result of the varied businesses in Liverpool’s busy port. Intrigued and equally entertained by the solace that their history can provide, for the present exhibition, Serah bestows a little nod to the concentrated emotions that the shores of the Mersey would have experienced including the loneliness and distance a loved one can feel even when standing in the middle of such clamour and how they might ask for otherworldly support. Appropriately, Serah’s work proposes a series of promises and spells for Liverpool whilst consciously highlighting the 1934 poem, Eggshells, by Elizabeth Fleming.
Lancashire born artist Becky Atherton, has recently started developing her own creative practice. Following the completion of a MA in Fine Art at UCLan Preston, in 2021, Becky received a grant from the Arts Council in 2023 to develop her own artistic practice. During this period, Becky explored the life of philanthropist Anne Howarth.
Becky’s re-interpretation of mythological folktales focuses on the portrayal of selkies, mythological creatures from Scottish and Irish folklore. Characterised by their shapeshifting abilities, although selkies were believed to live as seals in the sea they were also able to shed their skin to become human on land. Selkies unique characteristics are believed to origin from oral story telling traditions and early texts like the Orkneyinga saga.
Marion Bayliss recently moved to Lancashire from Somerset, in 2022, and quickly became a member of Southport Contemporary Arts, where painting has become a personal sanctuary of sorts. Succeeding the artist’s education at the Somerset College of Art in Taunton, Marion studied window display and gained a diploma in exhibition design. Following the painter’s decision of early retirement, Marion regularly held annual exhibitions at local churches during Somerset Art Weeks.
Marion’s artwork highlights the artist’s natural surroundings and consequently led to her portrayal of the four natural elements. For this exhibition, Marion was inspired by the fire element and the mythical Phoenix that symbolises the cycle of life, death and rebirth. This mythological character is often represented ascending from the ashes of fire to live for centuries until it dies and is reborn again. This endless cycle of life, through fire, powered Marion’s imaginative artwork.
Portuguese artist, Tiago Da Cruz, has lived in Southport for the last 5 years and is also a member of Southport Contemporary Arts. The artist’s practice presents an amalgamation of personal experiences, cultural influences and the exploration of detachment. Following the conclusion of a course in Visual Arts with ESFMP, Tiago is currently completing a BA in Arts and Humanities.
For this exhibition, Tiago has elaborated a series of acrylic, ink and pastel drawings focused on Hellenistic mythology and John William Waterhouse’s painting, Hylas and the Nymphs. By exploring the narrative of nymphs in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Tiago has generated his own rendition of these relentless beings that now exist with their own agency, exempt from the influence of Greek divinities.
Aglæca, Dread and Awe will be on display August 1st until August 31st 2025 at 92 Degrees Coffee, 49 Jamaica St, Liverpool, Monday thro Friday from 7:30am until 6:00pm and Saturday and Sunday from 9.00am until 6:00pm.
