Two New Exhibitions at Stockport Art Gallery
In Art
Archived: This event was in 2007.
Manchester-born sculptor Robert Koenig is well-known for his themes of ancestry, myth and nature. In the late 1990’s, Koenig began a project exploring his own ancestral roots. He travelled to Dominikowice, the Polish village where his mother grew up, and carved 23 wooden figures from the lime trees that grew there. He called these figures Dziady, or Forefathers, as the trees they were carved from bore witness to the dramatic changes to befall the community over the last century.
In his latest exhibition, Odyssey, he has taken these figures on a journey as he retraces the steps of his mother, who fled from a life of slavery in war-torn Poland. They have exhibited in many places across Europe. This final stage, in which the Forefathers arrive in Stockport where the artist’s mother finally found safety, is both moving and life-affirming.
Saddleworth-based artist Sue Platt’s main body of work explores the phenomenon of wonder-rooms that were popular between 1600 and the Victorian era. Wonder-rooms were collections of various artworks and sculptures as well as found objects and artefacts that often had yet to be explained by science or anthropology – thus early collections may have featured a ‘unicorn horn’, rather than the tusk of a male narwhale (as it would have been labelled today).
In Cabinets of Curiosity, Platt takes the idea of the wonder-room and puts a modern slant on it, exploring how human knowledge has advanced while simultaneously exploring our continuing fascination with the unknown.
Robert Koenig: Odyssey
Sue Platt: Cabinets of Curiosities
Stockport Art Gallery
30 Greek St
Stockport, SK3 8AD
0161 474 4453
8 September to 6 October
Opening times: Mon to Fri 11am to 5pm, Sat 10am to 5pm, Weds and Sun closed
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