Eden Court Theatre, until 20 July 2008

Judith MacLachlan - Fragments

EDEN COURT’S current exhibition presents a selection of intriguing work by Fife-based artist Kyra Clegg and Skye-based artist Judith MacLachlan. Klegg’s three-dimensional works using a variety of materials such as metal, porcelain, wax, feathers, perspex and textiles explores the idea of habitation, while Maclachlan’s paintings, mixed media collages and box constructions merge “landscape with the domestic interior”.

A series of objects and smaller works that have inspired key works in the exhibition can be viewed adjacent to the ground floor box office. These found objects, notes and sketches provide an introduction to a fascinating show.

Klegg’s sculptural and wall works represent a range of pieces which consistently investigate the relationship between “hide” and “habitat” in terms of creative process. Her exhibition ‘Hides and Habitats’ seen recently at Bonhoga Gallery in Shetland (and now on show at the Richard Attenborough Centre in Leicester, May to August) is an impressive body of work inspired by French philosopher Gaston Bachelard’s The Poetics of Space. Klegg’s visual poetics explore habitation “constructed as much from our imagination as from bricks and stone”.

The artist’s house-like mixed media constructions refer to the imagination as architecture, a dominant structure in her recent work. The second floor section of the exhibition works particularly well given the contemplative nature of the work. Pieces such as ‘Black House’ and ‘House Bound’ create an excellent foil to the white purity of this section.

The upper floor is the most intimate space in the show and the lighting of pieces such as ‘Lace and Ladders’ accentuates the otherworldly qualities of the chosen objects moulded in porcelain. Suspended above three dwellings with dangling woven ladders beneath, three perspex panels present a selection of shells, bones and pupae.

The stark beauty of these objects and the shadows they cast are arranged in a linear sequence, a perfect blend of conscious scientific display and unconscious free association. The porous lace frontage of each “house” does not allow us to see inside but gives us a sense of a living, breathing process behind a perfectly genteel and ordered sequence of facades.

The outer surface of many of Klegg’s dwellings, embossed with wallpaper like designs and the use of doorknobs in works such as ‘Open House’ are playful, tactile invitations for the imagination to cross an interior threshold to an unexplored room. The idea of metamorphosis is suggested in ‘House of Pupae’, a beautiful bronze/copper construction whose corroded facade mimics the pattern of cocoons scattered beneath in a serpentine trail. Whilst the materials appear perfectly solid there is a wonderful sense of natural fluidity in this piece. For a moment the emergence of an idea, an expression of creative process is suspended before our eyes and it is truly magical.

This quality is also reflected in adjacent works; ‘Alchemical House’ reads like the surreal emergence of an idea evolving through each of the assembled objects’ component parts while ‘Mesh and Metal’ creates layers of interior perspective. Hung at eye level a tear in the fine metallic matrix reveals a mirror reflecting the viewer and suggestive of both hide and habitat. The idea of concealment of the hide, a site of observation, is to me a powerful metaphor for creative practice which links strongly to earlier work.

‘Cabinets for Emily’, an extraordinary series of box constructions were created by the artist for StAnza- Scotland’s Poetry Festival in 2005.These multilayered works, a response to the life and work of poet Emily Dickinson, reflected the writer’s life, imagery and identity. The creative persona and the way in which in order to see we must step into an interior hide-like space of isolation is explored further in this latest work.

The idea of text is delightfully fluid in Klegg’s practice. She creates enigmatic and dream-like spaces that leave the door ajar for the mind of the viewer to wander into. The “interior” space of the work is as much about our own imaginings as the artist’s personal associations with the work.

Similarly the mixed media, acrylic and collage work of Judith MacLachlan allows colour, form and imagery to gradually emerge from the canvas or paper. There is a sense of suspension in the artist’s multilayered approach. Under-painting and bare canvas are uncovered, allowed to hover and vibrate against different saturations of colour in her predominantly abstract works.

‘Fragments’ (Acrylic on canvas) is a good example with depth created by overlapping fields of colour and tonal greys, delicate edged black, cascading white and scratched glimmers of golden orange under painting made visible like an act of excavation. ‘Not To Be Sold Separately’ box constructions of bone and paper clay extend this idea in sculptural form, like finds from an archaeological dig.

‘Hidden Landscape’, a series of intersecting forms in black, blue and white, contains the suggestion of landforms through texture. The idea of what lies beneath the conscious or physical world is suggested by MacLachlan’s technique and use of colour. In ‘January 11th 2005′, the artist uses hot pinks and orange underpinned by a deep grey/green, layering fragments of material and mark which add to the sense of emotion in the work.

Whilst there are suggestions of recognisable structures in these works, they are a synthesis of internal and external influences “objects… ideas taken from things read, heard on the radio or events trivial or momentous” The artist’s process, her layering of materials in collages and printmaking, are reflected in her painting technique. The relationship between the “surface” of these works and their interior content are a perfect pairing with Klegg’s sculptural and wall works.

There is a lovely sense of symmetry in this show and although each artist’s work is distinct, it is also complimentary in terms of creative process and the way in which the viewer is drawn into the work. The artists’ previous collaborations include the joint exhibition Sea Liminal in 2004 at the Three Camulusta Gallery, on the Isle of Skye. MacLachlan’s gallery is an extraordinary contemporary space and wonderfully unexpected, reached by foot along a rocky beach just beyond the village of Stein in Waternish.

Their latest collaboration is a compelling dialogue between the seen and unseen that encourages multiple viewings. This is art which goes beneath the surface and gently leads the audience along its dream-like path.

© Georgina Coburn, 2008

Links

• Kyra Clegg
• Judith Maclachlan