A new exhibition at Bonhoga Gallery is a celebration of both the twentieth anniversary of the gallery and the history of its home, the Weisdale Mill.
Since its construction in the 1850s, the building has gone from meal and barley mill, to butchery and tannery, to art gallery, shop and café. Since 1994, it has been welcoming large numbers of Shetland residents and visitors to the isles with a year-round exhibition programme of contemporary visual art and craft. Bonhoga means "my spiritual home" in Shetland dialect.
In celebration of the anniversary, Shetland Arts has curated an exhibition by twenty artists, one selected from each year of the gallery's exhibition programme from 1994 - 2014. The exhibits reflect the range of work from local, national and international artists who have been connected to the gallery over the past twenty years.
Each artist was commissioned to create a new work, using as a starting point an object relating to the gallery's history, location or physicality. These items have been chosen by the curators with each of the artists" work in mind, with the aim of creating a body of new work to reflect the Mill's history and celebrate its features.
Jane Matthews, Exhibitions Officer and co-curator of the exhibition explains: “Each of the 20 artists has responded to the object they were given in a completely different way, and it's fascinating to see what they have come up with and why.”
The exhibition runs until 7 September, concurrent with work in the lower gallery by recipients of the Shetland Visual Art and Craft Award