The Heartwood contemporary visual art project presents exciting new site-specific work in a woodland setting in rural Perthshire. It began in 2008 as an artists’ initiative and has developed into an annual event. The event coincides with the Perthshire Open Studios and is open from 3 – 11 September 2011.

Heartwood is curated and organized by the Heartwood Artists group comprising Fanny Lam Christie, Kyra Clegg, Su Grierson, Frances Law, Shona Leitch, Martine Foltier Pugh and Ceri White. Guest artists making work in Heartwood this year are: Alice Betts and Christine Wylie from Edinburgh; Anita Hutchison and Kenny Munro from Fife; Lisa O’Brien from Wester Ross; Roddy Mathieson from Dundee and Elodie Lefebvre from France.

The exhibition encompasses an array of stimulating, humorous and thought provoking ideas. A total of 14 pieces of work can be found in the 20 acre mixed woodland. Artworks include sculpture, mixed media installations, textile installation, video, performance and conceptual work. They explore such interesting themes as unity and void; site and imagination; human intervention and control of land; celebration of nature; interior and exterior space; the concept of marginalization; and the relationship between rural locations and human social interactions.

Alice Betts’ Interruptions experiment with our perception of space and provoke an awareness of our own presence within the woodland. Fanny Lam Christie’s Blanket takes evernia prunastri lichen – a natural identifier of clean air – and creates a web of the lichen in delicate porcelain, highlighting the importance of the forest on air quality. Kyra Clegg’s work Border Control uses the woodland’s boundaries to explore the duality and meaning behind the word border.

Comfort Zone by Su Grierson creates an artificial retreat within a cosy domestic space where one finds a sense of comfort when surrounded by popular images and symbols of the natural world. It critiques our social use of nature. Visualising Touch by Anita Hutchison focuses on the preservation of memories, which are expressed in tactile textile pieces, drawn with fabric and thread and incorporating needlework techniques.

Frances Law’s Outside In forms a primary means of expression. Working on site in her handmade tepee studio, observing and collecting material from the woods, she has presented her findings in the form of a 3D sketchbook of ideas, drawings and thoughts. Ogon-no-ki by Elodie Lefebvre deals with the notion of unity and void. Following the Japanese tradition of mending broken ceramics with gold, her work highlights the man made cuts in the fallen trees with copper leaf.

Hangin’ On by Shona Leitch depicts extremes of existence and the nature of balance by inviting the viewer to explore equilibrium and the variables within the cycle of personal circumstance. Roddy Mathieson’s Fake Fir looks at environmental packaging, as in the way landscape is marketed to us and reveals the artist’s processes of manipulation. Kenny Munro’s work is a 5-metre Bengal Boat which incorporates Tagore poems and celebrates the cultural links between Scotland and India by highlighting the friendship between ecologist Sir Patrick Geddes and poet Rabindranath Tagore.

Uproot/displace/resettle by Lisa O’Brien explores the concept of marginalization. Lisa uprooted a rowan tree at about 1200ft above sea level at the top of the tree line in Beinn Damh and transplanted it into the Monkquell woods. Collaborative Riddle by Martine Foltier Pugh conveys a multi-layered narrative highlight the process of artistic collaboration and invites viewers to guess the meaning of a numerical puzzle. Christine Wylie’s They Speak in Bright Voices deliberately jars with its surroundings. The bright yellow geometric shape alludes to a nearby rapeseed field and plays with the viewers’ visual perception.

Black Tent Video highlights subject matter relating to the natural environment. Kyra Clegg’s Mirror Mirror was inspired by Walter Rothschild’s book Extinct Birds. Su Grierson’s Pathways was created during a residency in France. Shreds and Countdown were edited by Su and Kyra respectively from shared footage, images and sound from a collaborative experimental project in Estonia and Scotland.

Dates & Opening Hours: Sat 3 – Sun 11 September, 10 am – 5 pm.
Venue: Monkquell, Brucefield Road, Blairgowrie, Perthshire PH10 6LA.
Admission free.
Perthshire Open Studios orange route venue 17
Web: www.heartwoodartists.com

Source: Fanny Christie