Adam Chodzko, Pattern for a Parade with Two Masks, 2007. © the artist

Exhibition preview – Adam Chodzko, Proxigean Tide, and Dawn of a Colony: Picturing the West, St Ives 1811-1888, both at Tate St Ives until September 21 2008.

Somewhere between the extraordinary and the everyday, between documentary and fantasy, lies the work of Adam Chodzko.

Chodzko works with the communities that surround him – often peripheral peoples with their own rituals and folklore – to produce works in a variety of media that draw on narrative, filmic traditions, storytelling and contemporary mythologies.

Adam Chodzko, Hole, 2007. DVD still. © the artist

Tate St Ives is the first public gallery in the UK to present a survey of his work, looking at his career over the last 17 years and showing many works that have never been seen in this country. A new commission is also being displayed, specially produced for the St Ives exhibition.

The new commission engages directly with the architecture of the gallery building and the communities living in and around the town. It appears to be a kind of changing room, full of winter clothes from numerous local clubs, societies, groups, individuals and industries. All the garments have been catalogued and are on show in the gallery's Heron Mall.

James McNeill Whistler, Cliffs and Breakers, 1884. © The Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow

Another gallery is devoted to the multi-faceted Design for a Carnival, an ongoing project that charts the evolution of a ritual event set in the future. Elaborate masks, a dubplate recording of the music from a future carnival float, an haute couture dress designed to clothe a wind turbine and a documentation of ants distributing sequins among their anthill make up the work.

Dawn of a Colony, meanwhile, is a special exhibition curated with St Ives art historian David Tovey. It's a showcase of works by some of the earliest contributors to St Ives' reputation as an artists' colony.

Helene Schjerfbeck (1862 - 1946), Hens amongst Corn Stooks, c.1887. Penlee House Gallery & Museum, Penzance

By the late 1800s, inspired by the trend of Parisian artists to retreat to rural spots for plein-air painting, European artists were flocking to St Ives for its space, light and subjects.

The exhibition looks at Turner's arrival in 1811, and at others who visited before 1890, including Henry Moore RA, John Brett and James Clarke Hook. It's also a rare opportunity to see works by Marianne Stokes and Henry Harewood Robinson, alongside canvases by Scandinavian painters Anders Zorn and Helene Schjerfbeck, who all spent time working in St Ives.