A new exhibition by Beara-based artist Petrina Shortt is on display at The Lord Mayor’s Pavilion, Fitzgerald’s Park, Cork city until February 28th.

Dreams of Hyperborea is being presented by Sample Studios and was inspired by Petrina’s encounters with the sea life near her home, a converted former sea urchin hatchery in Dunmanus Bay.

She undertook an artist residency at Bantry Marine Research Station, fascinated by the relationship between the scientific study of marine life and her own experiences diving among the wild, untamed kelp forests underwater.

This exhibition is inspired by Laminaria hyperborea, a type of kelp that grows along the coast of West Cork. Visitors to the exhibition are brought beneath the West Cork waves, invited to admire the often-hidden sides of the coast’s famous beauty.

‘I am delighted to have this opportunity to exhibit my new body of work, a combination of paintings and sculptures that have grown from two years of research into a small kelp forest beside my home in West Cork,’ said Petrina.

‘The project took shape during a two-month residency at Uillinn. I made weekly visits to Bantry Marine Research Station, observing their aquaculture projects through an artistic lens which held space for a dream-like imagining of this underwater forest.

‘The paintings exist somewhere between realism and abstraction, attempting to offer a felt sense of this place. The sculptures reference the geology of the area, and are a nod to deep time and maybe a reminder of the need for long-term thinking.’