Elemental

Before the Age of Enlightenment and the birth of science as we understand it today, many cultures across the world, attempted to classify all matter into variations of four elements, Fire, Water, Earth and Air. In addition, some of the Ancient Greeks, postulated a fifth element, Aether, to describe the heavenly quintessence used to make the stars in the Cosmos. In the 1600’s Robert Boyle in The Sceptical Chymist in 1661, describes The Four Classical Elements as follows: “If You but consider a piece of green-Wood burning in a Chimney, You will readily discern in the disbanded parts of it the four Elements, of which we teach It and other mixt bodies to be compos'd. The fire discovers it self in the flame ... the smoke by ascending to the top of the chimney, and there readily vanishing into air ... manifests to what Element it belongs and gladly returnes. The water ... boyling and hissing at the ends of the burning Wood betrayes it self ... and the ashes by their weight, their firiness, and their dryness, put it past doubt that they belong to the Element of Earth.” Bath Art Circle is a community of over one hundred local professional artists, established by Iasonas Bakas in 2024. This group show, Elemental, brings together an array of responses to these ancient principles, from the symbolic and descriptive to the expressive and abstract, in a diverse range of media.Presented by Bath Art Circle.

Curated by Melissa Wraxall & Kate Cochrane

Bath Artists Studios ● BA1 3AJ

23 May to 7 June 10am-4pm ● Private View Sat 23 May 6.30-8.30pm