Mella Shaw: Sounding Line, 24 May | Event in Dundee | AllEvents

Mella Shaw: Sounding Line

Leisure and Culture Dundee

Highlights

Sat, 24 May, 2025 Onwards

7 hours

The McManus: Dundee's Art Gallery & Museum

Free Tickets Available

Date & Location

Sat, 24 May, 2025 at 10:00 AM to 05:00 PM (BST)

Multiple Dates

The Mcmanus: Dundee's Art Gallery & Museum

Albert Square, Meadowside, Dundee Dd1 1da, Dundee, United Kingdom

Save location for easier access

Only get lost while having fun, not on the road!

About the event

Mella Shaw: Sounding Line

Sounding Line is an immersive ceramic installation that explores the devastating effect of marine sound and sonar pollution on whale species. The large-scale sculptural forms are inspired by whales' tiny inner-ear bones. They are made from a unique clay body using whale bone ash - the same way cow bones have been used for centuries to make bone china. This is the first UK institutional solo show from artist Mella Shaw.


The project takes its name from a sounding line a length of rope with a weight used by mariners to measure the depth of water. In the installation Mella wraps her sculptures in red marine rope that resonate with sonar pulse. Encouraged to touch the ropes visitors will feel these vibrations reflecting how marine life experience sonar underwater.


The installation is accompanied by photographs and a short film. The film documents a journey the artist made to South Uist in the Outer Hebrides. Here she returned one unfired sculptural form back into the sea where it slowly dissolved in the sea water.


It is fitting that this work is staged in Dundee Britain's leading whaling port in the second half of the nineteenth century. Against the context of the City's maritime and whaling heritage Sounding Line invites us to reflect on the human impact on our environment.


Mella Shaw: Sounding Line runs at The McManus from 24 May 2025 until 18 January 2026.


Admission Free. Opening times: Mon to Sat 10am-5pm; Sun 12.30-4.30pm. Last entry is 15 minutes before gallery closing time.

Refund Policy

Tickets are free for The Mella Shaw: Sounding Line exhibition.

Ticket Info

Tickets for Mella Shaw: Sounding Line can be booked here.

Register for Free
 Mella Shaw: Sounding Line, 24 May | Event in Dundee | AllEvents
Mella Shaw: Sounding Line
Sat, 24 May, 2025 Onwards
Free