Play, Myth & Ecology: Baltic’s Bold Summer Exhibitions

National World - LocalTV

The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead is showcasing two immersive, science fiction– and myth-inspired exhibitions this summer: Harold Offeh’s interactive Afrofuturist playscape The Mothership Collective 2.0 and Saelia Aparicio’s ecology‑driven installation A Joyful Parasite, exploring hybrid bodies and environmental care.

Transcript

00:00Science fiction has landed in Gateshead and it's taken over the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art

00:05this summer with not one but two thought-provoking new exhibitions that invite visitors to explore

00:10the future, mythology and the world around us in bold new ways. On the ground floor artist Harold

00:16Offey has transformed the space into a vibrant interactive sci-fi playscape and it's anything

00:22but your typical gallery experience. So hello my name's Harold Offey, I'm an artist currently based

00:29in Cambridge and as an artist I work with themes of play, learning but I'm also interested in sci-fi,

00:41fictions, mythology and really a lot of my work is about encouraging people to kind of engage with

00:49making and playing as a way of learning and discovering the world. Yeah for me science

00:53fiction and play are two very fundamental things. Sci-fi represents the opportunity to think about

00:58future possibilities, what might we like to see in the future, what do we want to see happen,

01:06what changes do we want to enact and for me it's very important that people have access to the future

01:12because that's about power, that is about feeling you're part of a broader conversation with culture

01:18and the world is when you have the right to think about future possibilities and also think about what

01:25you want and I think play also for me is that's about learning, it's fundamental to young people,

01:32is trying things out, testing materials and I feel as we get older as adults we lose that but actually

01:37it's a still very important thing to have space for is to discover and particularly for me is

01:45intergenerational bringing you know young and old people together in shared spaces of learning.

01:51audience participation is really central because I think for me art can sometimes feel like very

01:57distancing like it can feel like often it's about you going into a gallery or a space and then you

02:03have to learn what the artist is doing whereas actually I really want to create spaces where people

02:07feel they can take ownership and they can discover things, they can ask questions, they can also be

02:14creative as well and that's a really important part of creativity and learning and as an artist I want to

02:19create space for that. Meanwhile upstairs Spanish-born London-based artist Sayelia Aparicio has unveiled

02:26her largest commission yet, a stunning fusion of sculpture, murals and installation that dives into

02:32the strange and beautiful relationship between our bodies, the environment and systems of care.

02:38So I was thinking a lot about how to talk about transformation from a botanical perspective and also

02:49talking about like colonialism, invasive species and how like I'm talking about ecology from a joyful perspective.

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