Pants and profanity: Celie Byrne’s new exhibition launches at Fife venue
A new exhibition at a Fife gallery is pants - literally!
Renowned contemporary artist Celie Byrne has curated the display of the unique garments after community workshops at Methil Heritage Centre.
Entitled ‘The World Is All Blank Blank Pants, it invited people not just simply to make, but to say something by embellishing garments with personal reflections on hate, hope, and humanity.
The end result is an exhibition which blends profanity with humour, and brings together large-scale sculptural installation, and an extraordinary collection of hand-embellished garments.
The exhibition takes its irreverent title from Byrne's ongoing series drawing on remembered childhood phrases — works that use humour, profanity, and personal reflection to interrogate patriarchy, resilience, and the very human need to say something true. Here, that spirit extends beyond the gallery wall and into the hands of the community.
And, subtitled ‘The Unbearable Weight of Bad Things Clouding My Sunny Day’ it also brings Celie full circle.
Fifteen years ago, while working as a community learning tutor at Adam Smith College, Byrne ran knicker-making classes as part of the ‘Step in and Step Up’ outreach programme in Leven. The participants' instinct for colour, fabric, and trim was extraordinary, and an idea was born - what if these garments hung not in a wardrobe, but on a gallery wall?
That vision is now a reality at the heritage centre after she was invited by Rachel-Jane Morrison, community engagement co-ordinator for OnFife, to facilitate the artist-led workshops
These intimate, handmade pieces from the workshops hang alongside Byrne's ceramics and large-scale sculptural pants installation, bringing joy, scale, and defiant playfulness to the heart of the exhibition. Every stitch carries a story, and every choice of fabric, a voice.
The exhibition runs until May 29 with a date for a drop-in talk with Byrne to be confirmed.
Since her inclusion in the 2011 BP Portrait Award exhibition with Teenage Dirtbag, the Glasgow born artist has become prolific across portraiture, large-scale mural work, and political installations.
Her commissioned portraits hang in numerous private collections. Her most recent self-portrait was acquired by the Northern Ireland Civil Service and now forms part of the Stormont Estate permanent collection.
Byrne's figurative style is, in her own words, "straightforward and deceptively honest" - capturing the subtleties and quirks that make every sitter unmistakably themselves.
She said: “Having the parents I have has been crucial - they are the funniest people I ever knew, and I like to inject a little of that inherited humour into my art.
“As a painter, I am all about the people on my doorstep: I love painting them, and I love painting for them.
“My recent work uses historical advertising campaign images with remembered satirical childhood phrases - phrases that usually involved swearing. My work becomes a space for swearing with aplomb, questioning male dominance and patriarchy narratives. I symbolise transformation and change. If you want something done, ask a busy woman.”
> The exhibition contains some profanities which may be sensitive to some visitors.