Tony 'Doc ' Shiels - Reenchanted Landscapes of Cornwall - Dr.Rupert White

The UnNatural History of Cornwall - on artist Tony 'Doc'Sheils 'the Weirdest Family in The Land - Zoom Lecture

The Unnatural History of Cornwall - curated by Dr.amy Hale brings stories of the weird and wonderful from Cornwall to a wider audience, with an emphasis on Cornish voices from the past and the present.

Tony 'Doc' Shiels arrived in St Ives, Cornwall in 1958, a hopeful and ambitious young artist. For a few years his painting career went well, but he grew impatient with the limitations of abstract art. Instead, emboldened by Dada and Surrealism, his life became stranger and more magical. He displayed the disembodied head of an Egyptian princess, sawed a woman in half, and carried out some bizarre monster-raising stunts involving Morgawr the Cornish sea serpent. He included his wife, children and friends in many of these exploits and, indeed, after appearing in the national media, in the mid-1970s they became briefly known across Britain as 'The weirdest family in the land'.

Shiels used skills learnt as an artist to manipulate the public in a brazen and audacious display of theatrical, imaginative daring. In this talk Shiels' unique career will be explored in the context of Cornish folklore and its invention and reinvention by a number of others in the post-war period.

Dr Rupert White is based in Cornwall where he is editor of artcornwall.org online magazine and The Enquiring Eye: journal of the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic. He is also the author of a number of books including 'Monstermind: The Magical Life and Art of Tony Doc Shiels' and 'The Re-enchanted Landscape: Earth Mysteries, Paganism and Art in Cornwall 1950-2000'.

Dr. Amy Hale is an Atlanta-based anthropologist and folklorist writing about esoteric history, art, culture, women and Cornwall in various combinations. She has been writing about Cornwall and Cornish culture for over 25 years and has no intention of stopping. Her biography Ithell Colquhoun Genius of the Fern Loved Gully was published by Strange Attractor Press in 2020.