Review by Giles Sutherland
Point Of Balance
8 Sep 2005 in Highland, Visual Arts & Crafts
Timespan, Helmsdale, until 30 September 2005
Blue Skye', 'Ying Yang', 'Red Sky' by Brodie Nairn. © Giles Sutherland
THE TITLE OF the current exhibition at Timespan, ‘Point of Balance’, is highly apposite, and carries both a literal and metaphorical meaning. Each of the participating artists – Fin Macrae, Wendy Sutherland and Brodie Nairn – work in different media – photography, painting and glass respectively.
Although their practices vary widely, each complements the other both in subject matter and medium. ‘Point of balance’ describes both the inter-relationship between the separate groups of art-works within the gallery-space and the aesthetic objectives the artists have set out to achieve. Both approaches succeed marvellously: visually this is a beautifully conceived show; and is vibrant and exciting as an intellectual and conceptual exercise.
Brodie Nairn’s highly crafted glass objects such as ‘Black & White Tear’ or ‘Deep Black With White Cane I’ reveal the approach of a consummate craftsman and a committed artist (a description which can also be applied equally to both Sutherland and Macrae).
Nairn’s abstract forms speak of surface texture and internal complexity. The series of three works ‘Blue Skye’, ‘Ying Yang’ and ‘Red Sky’ , delicately poised on graceful perspex pedestals, invite a tactile response. They are sensuous and sensual, compellingly suggestive of topography and the female form, recalling Willem de Kooning’s statement ‘Landscape is the woman and woman is in the landscape’.
Point of Balance amply demonstrates the quality and breadth of visual art currently being produced by younger artists in Highland Scotland
These pieces find an echo in Fin Macrae’s technically accomplished ‘Balance and Tension’ series – double-sided photographs which depict a female nude. These studies are both erotic and sensitive, achieving a fine balance between artistry and craftsmanship. Beyond these are Wendy Sutherland’s semi-abstract landscape studies of east Sutherland. Although ‘Ben Uarie I’ and ‘II’ are identifiable in terms of specific place, they also carry the artist’s feeling and thought: landscape is both an external reality and an internal presence.
Sutherland’s work also extends to printmaking, and her photographically derived series ‘Hemprigg Wood I-VI’ shows great accomplishment in this medium.
Separately and as a whole, ‘Point of Balance’ amply demonstrates the quality and breadth of visual art currently being produced by younger artists in Highland Scotland. This alone is a reason for great optimism; additionally however the achievement of this show is that it is symptomatic of a wider renaissance of the visual arts, borne of energy and commitment to place, culture and landscape.
© Giles Sutherland, 2005
