Summer Exhibition 2019 July 20 – August 8
It is the wisdom of nature that is nature itself, and if nature were conscious of itself, it would be a superior being of extraordinary knowledge and understanding - Carl Jung
An artist residency at Hogchester offers more than a beautiful location - visiting artists have the opportunity to interact with the mystery of nature that connects deeply with our personal and collective unconscious. From engaging directly with the elements, to being led by incidental moments of reflection, this exhibition has been curated to bring together examples of this influence.
Nature’s terrain, touch and memory rise up in the form of Emily Stapleton Jefferis’ Afferent Quiver (2018) and are felt in the morphing twists of On the Sand the Clay Falls (2019) & Like Charcoal it Shimmers (2019) that incorporate foraged clay from the nearby Black Ven Cliffs. The same sticky, grey shoreline clay is also the medium of Tamsin Relly’s Rock Portraits (2018), watered down into a silky paint that allowed her to “recognise the reciprocal relationship we have with our environment and the simple intimacy we can share with it.” They converse with her painting Tree (2011) – speaking to the fluidity and connectedness of all things.
The fig tree nearby the studio barn gave Darren Harvey Regan shade and reflection each morning. The tree’s fruit led to the creation of “ . . . said the Fig Tree” (2019), contesting symbols of faith while, on a personal level, laments its loss. Protruding fingertips from the cast tin figs serve as a reminder of the human presence that shapes symbolic narrative and ideologies.
Adeline de Monseignat has installed her Spworms (2012) alongside Hogchester’s verdant lily pond. Penetrating the earth and water they allow worms and other organisms access into their intestine like glass bodies. Her five fur-filled Seeds(2015) have come from a maternal “seedpod” of 101 that, like Hogchester’s wildflower meadow seeds, are now being distributed far afield.
Clare Burnett created a series of improvisational sculptures that were made of discarded objects found on the nearby beach, market and recycling centre. These Dorset Characters (2019) are presented alongside one of the original sculptures Lost and Found (2019).
With Flama Reclinada II (2017), Pablo de Laborde Lascaris references life and death. A torch pointed downward is a symbol of the afterlife, life extinguished, but still glowing below. Upwards it symbolizes life and regenerative power. Pablo’s resting side flame points us to the state of balance in-between. His other bronze work Un Peso Como el Otro II (2018), pays tribute to the lump of metal that still defines the kilo and reminds us that even when things appear equal to the naked eye they are not necessarily so.
In Evy’s film Untitled Meadow she uses the meadow as a setting for an exploration of stillness, architecture of landscape and the body as sculpture. The work is a collaborative investigation into movement in landscape with dancer Flora Wellesley Wesley.
The six drawings presented by Susan Kruse (all 2018) are created directly from the living landscape. Susan spent hers days immersed in the landscape, attempting to lose herself in it. She refuses to assign any significance to the artist’s mark, choosing to remain unseen in drawings created using movement, natural phenomena and data. Her lo-tech devices harnessed the wind, and water movements of Hogchester as an act of “bearing witness” to the living world.
We hope you enjoy the presented works and would like to extend our thanks to Doset AONB Sustainable Development Fund who have kindly supported this exhibition.