Timespan, Helmsdale, until 14 May 2008

Lucie Treacher, Liz Treacher and Norman Gibson

TIMESPAN’S purpose built contemporary gallery space overlooking the centre’s herb garden, River Helmsdale and Telford Bridge is a wonderful setting to enjoy the centre’s ongoing programme of Scottish, UK and International Art and Craft.

The first exhibition accompanying the reopening of the newly refurbished museum [see Georgina’s feature in the April Northings – Ed.] is a fascinating fusion of music, photography and sculpture. The collaboration of Skelbo based photographer Liz Treacher, Brora-based sculptor and designer Norman Gibson and the impressive debut of thirteen-year-old composer, singer and songwriter Lucie Treacher in the gallery space, demonstrate a multidisciplinary approach that enhances the enjoyment of each artist’s work.

In the upstairs gallery foyer a display of photographs is accompanied by a sound loop, whilst in the main gallery portable MP3 players with headphones provide access to soundtracks that accompany each sculpture. The interpretation of one artist’s work by another creates an engrossing dialogue, concentrating the viewer’s attention on particular aspects of the visual and spatial experience through the immediate evocation of sound.

The engagement of memory and imagination is facilitated beautifully by the 14 different tracks composed to accompany the sculptures, adding another dimension to the viewer experience.

Norman Gibson’s ’20th Century Archeology’, comprised of a series of found objects with wooden construction, is cleverly composed, framing our view through the piece with the repeated form of a rusted passing place sign. The passage of time takes on an archaeological significance with a series of mechanical parts forming a horizon line in the work. Different levels within the construction are arranged like earth strata with the framed motif penetrating these levels.

The presence of a suspended lens is for me an ironic comment on human perception in an aged defined by industrial and technological progress. In a modern age we are still subject to the same timeless forces of change as our ancestors. A tap juxtaposed with a solid block of Perspex-like material is brought curiously to life in Lucie Treacher’s soundtrack by the surreal sound of dripping.

Layers of sound in each interpretation of the sculptures featuring vocal, melodic, natural and industrial soundscape elements are sophisticated, demonstrating great promise and sensitivity in the work of Lucie Treacher. The visual is clearly a strong form of inspiration for this young composer and this fluidity is a wonderful foundation for future creative work.

‘Altered Horizons’ is another fine example, a beautiful sculpture by Gibson in which each found and textural element is integrated like the view of a landscape seen from above. The interplay of materials; delicately scratched glass, bird skull, wood grain and rusted metal find their aural counterpoint in flute, strings and percussion with a distinctly Eastern feel. The associations in much of the sound work are more abstract than literal which is what makes them so interesting – they bear a symbiotic relationship to the sculptures in terms of creative process.

The ironically titled ‘Terra Firma’ feels anything but, cloaked in a misty haze of dreamlike blue paintwork. Areas of painted wood have been sanded back in an instinctual act of creative exploration or anthropology. The form of this sculpture whilst mechanical and technical feels strangely figurative, with the inner workings of the “head” of the work accented in complimentary orange and yellow. Cerebral movement is suggested along with unconscious thought. The accompanying track is ethereal in feel, leading the viewer deeper into the work.

Photography is the art of light and illumination and this is beautifully conveyed in the work of Liz Treacher, transforming the ordinary with her exceptional ability to frame a shot with her eye and lens. Her use of 35mm black and white requires compositional skill often overlooked in an age of digital manipulation. This is an art that demands infinite patience, waiting for the light and conditions to align in just the right way to satisfy the mind’s eye. The play of light and shadow heightens the image to make a lasting statement.

It is wonderfully unexpected in a country which defines itself in shades of dreich and grey to see the streets of Scotland’s urban centres captured with all the magic and elegance of Cartier-Bresson’s Paris. Although Treacher concentrates her attention primarily on the legs and feet of people going about their day-to-day business on busy streets, she creates an intriguing narrative of relationships between the passer’s by.

Though urban contexts are often depicted in art as an environment of alienation, works such as ‘Hand Shadow’ and ‘Two’s Company’ suggest human connection through silhouette. ‘Aladdin’s Lamp’ with its magical quality of low winter light outlines the figures in an incandescent aura. ‘Reflections’ which concentrates our gaze on the texture of pavement, long deep-cast figurative shadow and the glass reflections in a shop window is another excellent example.

What I love so much about this work is how tone, composition and form create a scene which is explored by the viewer’s imagination. We cannot see a whole scene in most of these images, nor can we see people’s faces or expressions. However, even defined by shadow they are infused with life and emotion. ‘Skelbo Triptych’ with its shimmering light on water emerging out of darkness and populated by the dance-like movement of a single protagonist, is a poetic vision beautifully realised in celluloid. Based on this work I would love to see examples of the artist’s film-making.

This is an engrossing exhibition which immerses the viewer in “motion and stillness, duration, space, sound and silence”. The sound loops are “musical keys to unlock different elements in the work” but equally time should also be spent appreciating the photographs and sculpture in their own right. The way that each discipline informs the other opens up many possibilities for future collaboration and development of individual artist’s work.

This is an exciting show and an apt accompaniment to the range of creative possibilities offered by Timespan’s new refurbishment including studio/ workshop space, a residential space for visiting artists and curators and the centre’s ongoing artist residency, outreach and exhibition programmes.

© Georgina Coburn, 2008

Links

• Timespan
• VAS
• Liz Treacher
• Lucie Treacher