RESIDUE new exhibition at MAI Gallery

Gallery open daily 10-30 am - 3.30 pm, Saturdays from 9 AM

Exhibition with Alysn Midgelow-Marsden, Christine den Hartogh and Howard Esler

The exhibition ‘Residue’ has grown from a shared interest in natural

processes — the understanding that everything is in a continual state of

change. Elements are constantly arranging and disarranging; what appears

to be disintegration is often the beginning of something else. There is

continuity, but never stasis.

The works in this exhibition consider change, and the way energy, stories and

connections continue even after the original form has passed — whether

physically, emotionally, or into memory.

Residue can refer to what remains beneath the surface: traces of emotion

embedded within families and relationships.

Christine brings to light hidden aspects of her family history and trauma,

inviting reflection on what is uncovered and what lingers. With a lighter

touch, she draws attention to what's usually overlooked or dismissed as

useless, finding beauty in the discarded and forgotten.

Objects, too, hold residue. Howard’s burnt ladder and workbench speak

through absence — degraded into shadow selves where their stories are

known only through what remains.

Alysn’s work explores residue through several lenses: the remembered

presence of moa, interpreted through layered, stitched and burnt surfaces;

the stitching together and gradual unpicking of connections as memory

becomes blocked through Alzheimer’s; and finally Ut umbra sic vita — as the

shadow passes, so does life — where visitors are invited to create their own

shadow play.