Wells ART Contemporary

The annual Wells Arts Contemporary is on until 28th August, held at the cathedral and cathedral gardens. It shows 120 artworks and 29 installations. I particularly appreciated the installations which express some powerful themes including the following:

Tara Kennedy’s Hope Emerging which weaves together strands of unity, empathy and hope for more harmonious outcomes in relation to culture wars and religious conflicts.

Paul Bonomini’s L’Ascensione is particularly powerful to me as the theme of ascension is very much on my mind at present- in the sense of the need for humanity to ascend to higher and wider ways of being on this earth and also the personal aspiration to ascend through weakness, pain and difficulty to higher, deeper and more loving ways of being. This metal installation ascends the steps towards the chapter house and is symbolic of “the ascension of the mind”.

The usual splendour of the Chapter House becomes an environment for transformation with the installation Kaleidoscope with Mirrors by Anne Bennett. This can be quite a powerful theme as the chapter house is filled with butterflies which may speak of healing, change, rebirth, or the transition from earthly life to Infinite life. All with a kaleidoscope of colour and offering self-reflection in mirrors.

The reflective curved glass balls in Jane Taylor Weekes’ installation To see the world in a grain of sand incites the playful poetic and painful paradoxes of life, the temporal and the eternal, strong yet fragile, natural yet infinite. As I gaze at this installation, including the religious backdrop, it speaks of the movement of our lives which may sometimes seem to be chaotic or random, the way that glass marbles may roll about, and yet all is held in an Infinite embrace of Love.