Artist Abbas Akhavan developed Variations on a Folly through sustained research at Mount Stuart, allowing the neo-Gothic mansion, its gardens and surrounding landscape to determine the exhibition’s form.
Located on the Isle of Bute, Mount Stuart has hosted a contemporary visual arts programme since 2001. Akhavan’s project continued that site-responsive tradition by moving elements associated with the grounds into the vaulted sandstone crypt beneath the house.
Landscape brought into the architecture
The installation drew on the artist’s observations of nearby species, cultivated gardens and woodland. Rather than treating the mansion as a neutral gallery, Akhavan connected its formal architecture with the managed and less controlled environments outside.
The crypt gave the work an underground setting that contrasted with the open gardens above. Materials and forms associated with the landscape entered the building’s lower structure, creating a relationship between growth, domestic order and architectural history.
A work extending beyond the room
The project continued through sound. An audio work accompanied a walk from the house, past streams and through the grounds toward the vegetable gardens.
This movement required visitors to experience the exhibition across several kinds of space. The work began within the mansion but could not be understood entirely indoors.
Akhavan’s wider practice includes installation, drawing, video, sculpture and performance. Residencies have played an important role in his work because they allow time to study the social and physical conditions of a place before producing an intervention.
Variations on a Folly reflected that method. Mount Stuart’s crypt, gardens, paths and plant life were not simply subjects represented in the artwork. They became active materials in an exhibition that examined how architecture organises nature and how contemporary art can reveal the connections between the two.