Exhibition spotlight: The Poetics of Water explores colonialism, corruption and capitalism’s effect on the natural environment

Opening this summer at Castlefield Gallery, The Poetics of Water examines the effects of colonialism, corruption and capitalism on the natural environment.

Running from Sun 25 Jun – Sun 24 Sep, the exhibition features new work by Jessica El Mal and Parham Ghalamdar.

Through a series of ceramics and colour-saturated oil paintings of dystopian landscapes, Ghalamdar reflects on a recurring theme in Persian mythology: the struggle to prevent the separation of soil and water and the repression of growth and knowledge that this causes. This struggle is echoed in popular culture and the discourse around the climate crisis, and Ghalamdar delves into this absurd tone as we repeatedly fail to make significant positive change.

El Mal’s work includes imagery made by coating sheets of paper with cyanotype solution (a slow-reacting photographic printing formulation sensitive to ultraviolet light) and exposing them to rainfall in Morocco. The resulting prints and fabric works will be accompanied by a sound piece made with fragments of poetry and field recordings, also taken in Morocco. Like Ghalamdar’s, these works implicate the viewer in a scene, a stage set for contemplation and encounter.

A shared point of reference for both artists is contrasting attitudes towards rainfall, particularly between Manchester, a city with which rain is so synonymous, and Morocco and Iran, where droughts and water shortages are an increasingly serious problem. Together their works invite visitors to look across landscapes, borders and centuries and to think deeply about our relationship to these fundamental elements of soil and water.

The Poetics of Water is part of an ongoing pilot project at Castlefield Gallery, Hybrid Futures, which aims to act on climate change by introducing sustainability in commissioning, exhibiting and collecting art. For more information about the exhibition and wider project, visit the Castlefield Gallery website.

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