pv Friday 11th July
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For centuries the semi mythical-land named Thule was the embodiment of the ultimate northern wilderness, a place of impossible extremes. Allegedly discovered by Pytheas, a lone Greek explorer in the 4th Century BC, it has captured the imagination of artists, idealists and politicians ever since. For 18th and 19th Century aesthetes, tiring of the classicism of the Grand Tour, Thule represented a far greater and wilder quest, redolent with Nordic sagas. Thule has been sought in places as far ranging as Spitzbergen, The Shetland Islands, Estonia, Iceland and Greenland. In the history of the various definitions of Thule, it is most commonly seen as a virgin wilderness, yet the only place named Thule is a US Army base dating back to the Cold War, revealing a paradox innate to this elusive place. |
Likewise, the imaginary worlds of the artists in this exhibition explore the tension between the real and the imagined, the forces of nature and those of technology. Their work shares a particular relationship to landscape, specifically how, in the context of painting, landscape comes to represent something beyond the physical embodiment of a place. Images of landscape have often been associated with the desire for otherness and to idealise that longed-for elsewhere. The pursuit of this “elsewhere” reveals a tendency for its perpetual deferment: One is no sooner in the elsewhere that it becomes a part of oneself, its otherness subsumed and oneself subsumed within it. The enigma of Thule then, may be more to do with the human psyche than any lack of ancient geographical evidence.
Mia Taylor
Fascinated by the crossover between technology and fiction, Mia Taylor’s paintings allude to otherworldly narratives through a focus on time and duration in relation to landscape and ecology.
Taylor graduated from an MA at Chelsea College of Art, London (2005). Her work was included in the Jerwood Contemporary Painters exhibition and prize, London (2007). Other shows include Tipping Point at Purdey Hicks Gallery , London (2008), Hygge, Standpoint Gallery, London (2007) and A Moment In Time, Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin (2005).
Thomas Falstad
Mythology and idealism collide in Thomas Falstad ’s dystopian landscapes. Derived as much from Art historical tradition as they are from popular culture, the depopulated ruins in his paintings are those of a recent past, and an all to near future. His “stories from the future” may be fictions but they are an uncomfortable reminder of the power of unbridled technology.
Falstad graduated from a BA at Kingston University in 2001. His work was included
in The 2008 Drawing Biennial at Kunstnernes Hus in Oslo, Young invited Artists at
the LNM Gallery in Oslo (2007) and Drawn 2B Alive at Hales Gallery, London (2003).
In autumn 2008 his work will be included in 40/40 at The Stenersen Museum, Oslo.
Ben Deakin
Ben Deakin’s landscapes are scenes of disjunction, hinterlands where tensions between nature and industry are played out amid suggestions of agency and suspense. By employing slippages of scale Deakin’s paintings reveal how associations with landscape and the sublime are inextricably linked to our relationship with the miniature and the gigantic.
Deakin graduated from an MA at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London (2006). He was a finalist in the Gilchrist Fisher Award, London (2006). He was recently awarded a residency at KIAC, Canada and exhibited at Gallery Yujiro, London (2007).