Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery have acquired 'Hold Fast, Stand Sure, I scream a revolution' by Serena Korda.
The installation comprises 29 porcelain mushroom 'bells' which will hang from the ceiling of Tullie House's newly built welcome area. Three of the mushrooms produce different notes and sounds. The museum will train a group of community volunteers to play the shrooms for performances at special occasions
'Hold Fast, Stand Sure, I scream a revolution' is a sound sculpture originally created for Reid Gallery and Comar as part of Glasgow International 2016 and has been adapted for Tullie House's new atrium. The work combines Korda's interest in primitive impulses, invented tradition and our skewed relationship to nature. In this installation Korda continues her investigation into "thin places", anomalies in the landscape which were viewed in pre - Christian times as access points to the afterlife. Mushrooms are imbued in our consciousness as grotesque, magic and poisonous. Closer to humans than to plant life, this confusing specimen holds us in rapture and fear. Whilst at the same time they suggest a "radical mycology" in the way that they grow and live, creating possible solutions to our impending extinction.
Accompanying the mushrooms will be a soundscape with field recordings of 'Thin Places' from in and around Carlisle.
Commissioning process supported by Arts and Heritage
The work was acquired with the generous support of Arts Council England/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, Art Fund, and the Henry Moore Foundation.
April 18, 2024
