These Magnetic Magnitudes

Cecilia Danell

Curated by Brenda McParland 

These Magnetic Magnitudes is a solo exhibition of new work of painting, textiles, ceramics and film by Cecilia Danell. In a practice which is rooted in materiality and process, the starting point for Danell’s work is a first-hand engagement with the landscape of the area in Sweden where she grew up. Bodily memories of moving through the places she depicts are mirrored in the physical endeavour of painting on a large scale, which creates its own spatial choreography. A new series of large paintings considers ideas around spectatorship and participation, inspired by the large nature dioramas at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. We are presented with scenes that invite the viewer to step into them, yet we’re prevented by the fact that it’s a 2D surface. Danell continuously points back to this push and pull between realism, abstraction and the materiality of paint itself.

The use of fiction and the imaginary to speak about present and possible futures is of particular interest to Danell. Through a Science Fiction reading of the landscape, Danell presents a series of ceramic sculptures and textile wall hangings that memorialise snow for future generations by playing with its properties of hiding and abstracting the underlying shapes. Echoing the snowy vistas in The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin, these are imaginary “ur-forms” that touch upon the primeval, merging colourful playfulness with a solemn reminder of climate change and the state of our planet. These Magnetic Magnitudes utilises several mediums to speak about the same overarching theme of contemporary landscapes and our unfulfilled yearning for that which is primal and unspoilt, filtered through the lens of psychogeography, Science Fiction and the sublime.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a new publication.

Gallery Information:
The gallery is located on level 3 in Solstice Arts Centre
Opening times: Tuesday to Saturday / 11.00am - 4.00pm
Entrance to the gallery is free of charge 
Solstice Arts Centre is wheelchair accessible

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