Scottish Natural Heritage, Great Glen House, Inverness, exhibition ends 30 November 2007, installation on permanent show

General view of Multiply exhibition.

AS PART OF Scottish Natural Heritage’s contribution to the Year of Highland Culture, Mulitiply is an exciting and innovative exhibition featuring work from 14 students from Moray College of Art in Elgin and Duncan of Jordanstone College in Dundee.

These specially commissioned “multiples” designed for mass production superbly illustrate the complex relationship between human beings and environment. The conceptual strength of many of these student works raises significant questions about the links between nature and culture, art and ecology in our lives.

It is especially encouraging to see this exhibition showcasing the work of emerging artists in the context of SNH-related projects. The curators of Multiply, artists Matthew Dalziel & Louise Scullion, were also commissioned to produce a permanent work for Great Glen House, now installed in the building’s atrium.

In a third strand of the project, a major environmental arts symposium coinciding with the official unveiling of Dalziel + Scullion’s permanent commission and the Multiply exhibition will take place in Inverness (29-30 November). “More Than Us: Conversations Between Humanity, the Arts and Ecology” will bring together political, ecological and cultural commentators to discuss and debate man’s relationship with the environment.

Dalziel & Scullion’s work in photography, sound and video have earned them the Creative Scotland Award, the Saltire Award for Art in Architecture, the Eco Prize for Creativity and most recently the pair have been short listed for the Artes Mundi Prize 2008.

Their five panel commission succeeds in this space not due to these credentials, but in relation to the way in which the work as a whole is integrated with the architecture and light of the atrium space. It is an expansive contemplative work whose white space creates a “floating world” like that of a Japanese print. The work plays with “perspectives, composition and emptiness”, water and sky merge in a lost horizon of white which seems to opens out into the architectural space above

Manipulation of this series of large photographic images also focuses our attention on detail such as the slender Scotch burnet moth in panel four, part of the SNH Species Action Framework and the subject of current research. The choice of the burnet’s territory as the site of exploration shifts our perspective in recognition of a type of species that ordinarily “barely registers in our busy, predominantly urban lives”.

Viewed continuously the first four panels are separated from the fifth by a first floor walkway. Standing on the floor one feels strangely elevated as if standing on the cliff top suggested by the outcrop on the second and third panels. For its scale the work is remarkably subtle. It is not overbearing on the surrounding office environment and encompasses the quality of nature larger than ourselves, built on the infinite variety of its smallest elements.

Installed on a series of white plinths between the main reception and SNH library Multiply as an exhibition presents what for me is more potent and satisfying work. Lucy Johnstone’s “Habitat Viewer” is an ingeniously simple device in postcard form that places responsibility for framing the view in the hands of the viewer with the artist as facilitator. The idea that each one of us has “influence over the environments we inhabit” is strongly communicated.

The “Habitat Viewer” is personal in scale returning us to the idea that how an individual views and “edits” the world around them is a powerful agent of determinism. The concept of this multiple is not just about the visual device of framing a view, traditionally a perceived role of artists or photographers, but the way in which we collectively and culturally sanction perception of the environment around us. With our thoughts we make the world individually and as a culture.

Tara O’Leary’s sound work “Ark – an incantation for airports, shopping centres & motorways” is a collection of named species recited as a circular incantation. This method of communication resonant in many different cultures throughout the world conveys a feeling of unison with something greater than oneself. The beauty of each chosen word and species revealed in a soft mesmerising tone lull the listener into a state of calm.

The magical effect of this work through the immediacy of sound is quite extraordinary and I would love to see “Ark” reproduced in public spaces just to see what the effect en masse would be – a transformation I expect. “Ark” speaks of our interconnection and dependency on all species as part of a wider web of life. O’Leary’s work is the perfect antidote to our urban built environment creating a circular soundscape of the human voice.

“Limited Edition” by Georgina Porteous raises questions about our perception and control in relation to the natural environment. Placed in a snow globe and suspended in protective fluid, a squirrel foetus is presented in a state of innocence. Presented inside an object of childhood associations the animal in this form links back to an early phase of human development suggesting inheritance of belief and the landscape of bedtime stories.

We cannot tell from its immature state whether it is a red or a grey and can therefore make no judgement on the basis of species. With control of greys currently a contentious issue the artist’s work extends beyond debate about the decline of one species to grapple with “the world of ecology in which every act has a tremendous and weighty counter argument or effect.”

Fellow Moray College student Charlie McLenahan’s “Dial a Service” creates a multiple in business card form that brings us into contact with the loss of individuals and entire species. The dead squirrel laid out on a page of classified advertisements is the flipside of the card that reads “The non being of the being”.

The recognition of loss in our world and our inheritance of ecological damage is a core concern in McLenahan’s practice. The recent collaboration of McLenahan and Porteous or Charlie & George on their installation D ART GALLERY at Moray College introduced these two promising artists as an emerging double act.

Libby Amphlett’s “Between You & The Earth” begs the question of whether we need protection from the earth and its elements or if nature actually needs protection from us. The easily reproduced overshoes with a map printed on the sole suggest the way in which we are separated from nature by our sanitised and clinical modern existence.

Tielia Dellanzo’s “Found” explores optical and ideological perception through a magnified panel on the lid of a plastic box containing the word “found”. As human civilization continues to develop through technology, the microscope, telescope and internet have expanded the boundaries of our known world. The embroidered word “found” suggests the careful work of a human hand and relates to our capacity for individual perception, “wonder” and “discovery” if only we choose to see. This is an unexpectedly emotive work on an intimate scale made visible but also contained by its plastic outer shell.

The scope of SNH’s engagement through this series of projects is impressive; the creation of a permanent installation, a temporary exhibition, symposium, and the intended publication/ touring exhibition, all of which will play a role in extending the life of the original commissioned works and facilitate wider discussion of both art and ecology.

The remit of SNH “to manage and promote Scotland’s natural heritage as an integral part of Scottish culture and quality of life” finds a perfect partner in the interpretative role of the artist. Art and environment in Scotland are without doubt our two greatest assets.

The direct engagement of an essentially “scientific and literal” organisation like SNH with philosophical or creative process sets a wonderful precedent. Commissioning work by emerging and established artists has produced a fascinating and thought provoking series of works. Multiply creates an open dialogue between the function and activity within Great Glen House and the world outside in a way that is insightful and progressive, making the value of partnerships between art and science abundantly clear.

(SNH Multiply finishes on 30 November. Dalziel + Scullion’s More Than Us can be seen at Great Glen House, Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm).

© Georgina Coburn, 2007

Links

• More Than Us
• Dalziel + Scullion
• Scottish Natural Heritage