Moray School of Art, Moray College, Elgin, until 26 June 2011

AS Scotland’s fifth Art College, Moray School of Art has progressively established itself over the last decade, celebrating the 10th anniversary of the UHI Fine Art Degree and the fourth year of delivery of the honours course at Moray in 2011.

Work from this year’s BA (Hons) Fine Art graduates – Alison Robertson, Deborah Anne MacVicar, Anne Corrance Monk, Karen Bush, Christine Seymour, Cecilia Mann, Margaret Joan MacIssac, Amanda J Rae, Lorraine Burke, Liz Hall, Jean Floyed, Mairi Thomson, Laura Donkers and Marnie Keltie – is varied and diverse, reflecting the independent spirit of creative inquiry that has defined the school to date. It is gratifying to see the work of these emerging artists as a vital part of the Northern cultural landscape and in the wider context of contemporary Scottish Art.

As an institution Moray School of Art it is uniquely positioned to forge new relationships and networks of creative learning with an emphasis on practice-led research. Among this year’s graduates are students from the Uists who have taken part in an innovative distance learning pilot; a partnership between Moray School of Art and Taigh Chearsabhagh, North Uist, where students completed the first two years of their degree, undertaking the final two years of the programme in a combination of e-learning, face to face visits at Moray School of Art and visits from tutors to the Uists.

Work by Marnie Keltie

Current graduates Deborah MacVicar and Marnie Keltie, selected for the RSA New Contemporaries exhibition in Edinburgh (17 March – 11 April 2012), demonstrate the potential strength of contemporary visual work inspired by their unique positioning in island /rural locations.

Deborah MacVicar’s filmed performances and Cynotype self portraits “explore the relationship between self and place” in a way which engages not just with the physical environment, but the inner landscape, stories and human history of her home in Benbecula. Use of one of the earliest forms of photography, pioneered by Sir John Hershel and developed by Anna Atkins in the 19th century, has produced a striking series of images on cotton, silk and hemp in characteristic cyan blue. The imprint of the artist in silhouette appears as residual energy rather than a definitive statement of ego normally associated with the artist self portrait.

In Cynotype Self Portrait with Deer Remains on cotton the idea of self is derived from surroundings, the artist appearing in forensic-like free fall at the centre of the composition. Within the artist’s practice the image is situated in strata of detailed enquiry and immersion in the landscape. The human scale of this work is mirrored in two adjacent works; Cynotype Self Portrait on silk and Cynotype Self Portrait on hemp, where the figure is in a foetal position, hand seemingly outstretched into the viewer’s space by lightened tonality.

Work from Deborah MacVicar's self-portraits series

These are fascinating works, refreshing in their “erasing” of self in terms of contemporary art practice, placing the creation of this “negative space” at the heart of the artist’s process of transformation. MacVicar’s intensely personal enquiry in terms of self and place actively expand the work, laying bare human experience much in the same way as her video juxtaposes plucking a bird to voiceover narrative of stories hidden in the landscape. In another performance work the shadow of a female mannequin with a seal skin pinned to its frame cast on the projection informs our reading of the artist emerging from the sea in a wetsuit, then cast on the beach in close up, one eye open, the guttural sound of seals shrieking on the accompanying soundtrack.

Marnie Keltie’s mature work feels as if it has synthesised the very processes of nature in the artist’s accomplished handling of paint. Her large Triptych (Oil on Linen) on panels of progressive scale is a superbly balanced abstract composition; rendered as if successive tides had acted upon it, leaving a tracery of shoreline debris. A palette of serene blues, with accents of red pigment and eroded canvas moving into earthy sedations of umber are delicately balanced, conveying beautifully the transitory nature of marks being traced and erased by the elements.

Work by Marnie Keltie

The horizontal striations in this work seem evocative of the passage of time, of successive layers of movement on the vulnerable shore. This sensitive treatment of both form and colour also suggest a human presence in the work; Keltie paints not a beach scene but an inner landscape of human remembrance.

In her Wall Painting (Hand made pigments on plaster) the opaque tonal treatment of the ground resembles the visible action of wind on sand, granules shifting before the viewer’s eyes, whilst the vertical arrangement of striated marks in subtle organic hues are arranged in a manner reminiscent of Japanese design. This essential minimalism, together with the delicacy of the painted surface, work beautifully in counterpoint with each other.

Beside this work Fresco Fragments (Hand made pigment on paper), a pile of torn pieces of work in a similar style exhibited on a plinth, deconstruct the image, seemingly playing with the materials and with the idea or tradition of painting. The integrity and immediacy of drawn marks exist in two and three dimensions in the artists work; in Dislocation, (Oil on Linen) a series of nine panels, Keltie utilises casts of flotsam to “recreate the space the objects inhabited”.

The entire surface feels sculptural, built in low relief, while in Lifeline, a vertical series of small panels, the gestural, calligraphic marks convey essential energy of the artist’s hand at work. In Keltie’s latest body of work the discipline of painting moves into exciting territory; of exploration and experimentation leading to the distillation of the artist’s own visual grammar and distinctive voice.

Alison Robertson’s installation Space presents the viewer with the possibility of a deeply personal experience of navigation within a box devoid of light. On the outer surface a mirror prompts the interior experience, entering alone into a space where the participant must feel their way through, the soft walls and floor strangely comforting in their confinement. It is a womb-like experience, the whispered soundtrack barely discernable apart from the reassurance of a few identifiable words or phrases which seems to emerge and recede into the dark.

While this installation would undoubtedly be a claustrophobic’s worst nightmare, the creation of such a space of unknown and supported stillness feels like a soothing refuge for the mind. This is also experienced physically, moving through this work in an S-curve, feeling protected and cushioned through what could potentially be a traumatic experience. Being in this space alone is crucial to its essential dynamic, while at the same time the interior voice of the work defies the sense of individual isolation.

Another installation, Basement, installed as back projection within a basement window of the college courtyard, is a beautifully unexpected site specific work. The containment of rippling images of water and light within this frame, barred from the viewer by the metal grill and iron balustrade, yet still seen and therefore experienced in all its tranquillity, is a contemplative and satisfyingly ambiguous work. Ambiguity is a potent element in Robertson’s current practice and can also be seen in a triptych of enlarged photographs in black and white by the artist.

The scale and actual nature of the image, animal or vegetable is unknown, although visually documented by the photograph. The sequence also defies identification in terms of process; we can’t be sure if it is growth or decay that we are witnessing, perhaps within the body or the interior of a seed pod. This play with the certainty of the photographic image is compelling and interesting; dialogues with the medium of photography can also be seen in the work of other artists in the degree show.

Work by Deborah MacVIcar

Mhairi Thomson’s sequences of black and white photographic images derived from mundane tasks and everyday life show promise, especially where the progression of images become more ambiguous. In a series of four windows of concrete reference, hands between each “frame” holding something to be read create an interesting dynamic between documentary and imagined or interpretative elements, calling into question the act of perception through the medium of photography. A sequence of three images of a bathroom mirror in various degrees of shadow that merge with the frame are also very effective and feel like Film Noir cinematography; the everyday rendered in heightened tonality and transformed.

Lorraine Burke’s exploration of photography using her Great Grandfather’s Butcher and Sons folding camera, displaying sequences of negatives in wall mounted light boxes is also ripe for further development. The presentation of the space as a whole with serpentine silver text on grey on the floor, intersecting and gradually revealing itself to the viewer, feels more illustrative than the original sound recordings which generated the text. The literal account of the shoreline walk and its meaning might have been conveyed as a more open dialogue between visual image and edited sound in the mind of the viewer.

As in previous degree shows it is extremely encouraging to see the individuality, depth and diversity of practice of emerging artists at Moray School of Art. This visible spirit of innovation bodes very well both for the future of the college and for the health of visual culture in the region.

© Georgina Coburn, 2011

Links

• Moray College of Art