BLUE MINDS
TURNING MINDS, TURNING TIDES

In Mariele Neudecker’s last installation at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, And then the World Changed Colour: Breathing Yellow, the artist took us from seeing yellow into breathing yellow. Her tank installation was commissioned as part of Harald Sohlberg: Painting Norway, and Neudecker took inspiration from the dense birch trees of Norway’s forests to create a submerged 3-D living landscape. She created a world between the chrome yellow Sohlberg used in his paintings and the intense yellow light created by the stained glass in Sir John Soane’s Mausoleum – part of Sir John Soane’s original stained glass design. This little fragment world to changed and evolved at different times of the day, responding to the light conditions surrounding it. Deeply sensitive to how colour can illustrate balance or discord in the natural world, she created a fully immersive environment that was hauntingly beautiful, because the colours are wrong. “I like the fact that you are in yellow either way… I wanted to create a sense of human residue.”

Emma Critchley is an artist who uses a combination of photography, film, sound and installation to continually explore the human relationship with the underwater environment as a political, philosophical and environmental space. She is Royal College of Art alumni and has developed works funded by organisations including The National Media Museum, Arts Council England, British Council, Singapore International Foundation, British Academy and the European Regional Development Fund. Her work has been shown extensively nationally and internationally in galleries and institutions including The Australian Centre of Photography, the ICA Singapore, The National Portrait Gallery, the Royal Academy, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art and Tate St Ives.

War is a 1/1 unique photographic work by activist artist Anne De Carbuccia, originally purchased from the Time Shrine Foundation, which forms part of her One Planet One Future project. Established with the aim of raising awareness on climate breakdown and human-caused threats to the planet, de Carbuccia mounts public exhibitions around the world, with an integrated education programme for sparking individual and collective action.“These are symbols of time, not death, and I build shrines to time. They are static installations in a natural lively environment,” she explains, pointing to the transient nature of human existence and the resilience of the earth. Anne de Carbuccia’s images are of fast disappearing environments, animal species and cultures. But there are no tricks, no quick swipe of Photoshop to inject an animal or particular sunset. She simply waits and waits until the right image is before her. Her work is both a reminder of the urgency to change individual habits and a plea to re-imagine the future.

Andrea Hamilton is a multi award-winning UK-based conceptual artist and photographer best known for her extensive images of the ocean, natural phenomena and the Kelvin scale. Her work encompasses numerous photographic genres including portraiture, still life, long exposure and landscape. Her systematic collection of subjects within a strict conceptual framework (Chroma, Tidal Resonance and Luminous Icescapes) over extended time periods has resulted in comprehensive archives. These are retrospectively organised according to common visual characteristics (movement, colour, light) into series which highlight specific themes: the nature of time and memory, our relationship with the environment, colour theory, being, and the representation of truth. Hamilton work is held in numerous private and corporate collections, including The Vault 100, and has published numerous books, including London Everyday for the Mayor of London. Her most recent accolade was Gold at the Tokyo International Foto Awards, 2020. www.andreahamilton.com @andreahamilton @_thecolourproject

Marcus Lyon (b.1965) was born and raised in rural England and studied Political Science at University. Commissioned and exhibited globally, his works are held in both private and international collections, including the Detroit Institute of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Arts Council Collection (UK) and the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, Washington DC. The 21st century saw his work move beyond traditional forms as he began to incorporate sound & science into his practice. He has created extensive bodies of work on dance, identity & globalisation. Outside the art world, Lyon is a determined social entrepreneur: A TED speaker, he currently serves as a Board Director of Somerset House and Leader’s Quest as well as supporting BLESMA  and Home-Start UK  as an Ambassador.

Aigana Gali is a multidisciplinary artist who works across a wide range of media, from canvas and paper to textiles and film, with a process that is delineated by the character of each series. Born on the ancient crossing of the Great Silk Road in Almaty, Kazakhstan, to a Georgian mother and Kazakhstani father, Aigana’s formative years were spent in the wild, open cradle of the Eurasian Steppe. Trained as a dancer, her artistic sensibility was fine tuned to the rhythmic character of place, in particular the vibrational quality of light: how the waves bounce or shadows are cast in the shifting theatre of colour, which mirrors the ocean. This rich cultural heritage is an infinite source to her work. Since her first solo exhibition at Kazakhstan’s preeminent contemporary, The Almaty Art Gallery, in 2014 Gali has been recognised as one of the rising stars of Kazakh art, and has exhibited widely. Her works are held in both private and public collections in Russia, Europe and Kazakhstan.   www.aiganagali.com  @aiganagali  www.manifestations-couture.com  @manifestations

Elisabetta Cipriani invites world-leading contemporary artists to create aesthetically innovative and socially relevant jewellery projects. Since the opening of her namesake gallery in 2009, Elisabetta’s pioneering vision and extraordinary roster of talents has redefined the boundaries between jewellery and fine art, capturing the imaginations of artists and collectors across the globe.   www.elisabettacipriani.com   instagram.com/elisabettaciprianigallery

Dina Kemal Marchant, founder of Stories of Art, provides lectures on baroque and contemporary artists, highlighting the quirky, human narrative beyond the obvious. Elegantly arranged through visual storytelling, they highlight an artist’s vision, history and secrets, including Agness Pelton, Hilma Af Klint, Judy Chicago and Georgia O’Keefe. Marchant studied Art History at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, Christie’s Education and The V&A. www.storiesofart.co.uk   instagram.com/storiesof_art

Multi-disciplinary artist Maya Sanbar is creating an immersive senses and sounds experience for visitors to Blue Minds, giving the Ocean a voice. She will also be screening ‘AQUARELA’, taking audiences on a deeply cinematic journey through the transformative beauty and raw power of water. Filmed at a rare 96 frames-per-second, the film is a visceral wake-up call that humans are no match for the sheer force and capricious will of Earth’s most precious element. From the frozen waters of Russia’s Lake Baikal to the throes of Hurricane Irma and Venezuela’s mighty Angels Falls, water is AQUARELA’s main character, with director Victor Kossakovsky capturing her many personalities in startling detail. Official Selection Venice Film Festival 2018, she will show this as a double bill together with her Oscar qualifying short animation film FOOTSTEPS ON THE WIND, created with Sting’s song Inshallah, about displacement – both climate and war refugees - premiering at the Serpentine Gallery on the 24th of June www.footstepsonthewind.com  - part of the UNHCR exhibition VOICES ON THE WIND  https://www.un.org/en/exhibits/exhibit/voices-wind/home