Pleased to be part of 'The Subversive Landscape' at Tremenhere Gallery curated by Hugh Mendes – with a lovely statement below.
Having been asked to curate a show at the beautiful Tremenhere Gallery in Cornwall, I thought it should refer to the landscape but not necessarily be a traditional ‘Landscape Show’. I thought about artists who I have worked with before and who I currently work with, especially in an academic context.
Initially I conceived of ‘the no landscape, landscape show’, which subsequently developed into ‘The Subversive Landscape’… consisting of artists who deconstruct, recontextualise or subvert the landscape, but are not necessarily thought of as Landscape Artists, at least not in the usual sense.
All of the artists I have invited are well known to me and I have followed their practice over many years. The exception to this is James Turrell. However, he has two major pieces of work on the site of the gallery; the Tremenhere Sculpture Park. One of these is an underground camera obscura. He has created an etching from an image of the tree canopy from under the ground. So this image fits the theme very well.
Also there is a Dorothy Cross piece sited right outside the gallery, which tangentially becomes part of the show.
Many of the artists I have included are part of the Fine Art faculty at City & Guilds of
London Art School, where I and most of them have taught for the last 20 years. They all refer to the landscape in very diverse and unusual ways.
Of the others, some are very well known internationally, others perhaps more obscure. It is a multi media exhibition, including paintings, prints, sculptures and time based video pieces.
Gordon Cheung shows a new series of sculptures based on Chinese scholars rocks otherwise known as spirit stones; microcosms of landscapes and meditative focal points between nature and civilisation. Here made of Financial Times newspaper to suggest the contemporary landscapes of capital transmitted at an instant and wherever it accumulates determines Utopias or Dystopias. The base enhance’s a pareidolia mountain in the clouds.
Artists: