Threshold artspaceBold contemporary art by Scottish and international artists in Perth since 2005

Open Mon to Sat | 10am-5pm or late on performance eveningsadmission free

Threshold artspace | Horsecross Arts

Perth Concert Hall | Mill Street | Perth | PH1 5HZ Perth Theatre | 185 High Street | Perth | PH1 5UW | UK0044 (0) 1738 621 031 | info@horsecross.co.uk | www.horsecross.co.uk/about/threshold-artspace/

artspace

INTERSECTIONS Su GriersonMajor survey exhibition, new Horsecross Arts’ commission and acquisition, artist’s book, collectable limited edition artist’s print and public investigations of art, land and politics by this internationally recognised Perth-based artist Curated by Iliyana Nedkova

Produced by the artist and Horsecross Arts for Threshold artspace as part of The Year of Natural Scotland 2013. Supported by Creative Scotland and Horsecross Arts. New Horsecross Arts commission supported by Japan Foundation and the IORI Club Japan.

30 June - 30 November 2013 FREE exhibition guide

“Intersections is the culmination of our ongoing collaboration with Su Grierson. Challenging our notion of the landscape tradition in art, this project surveys the last 17 years of Grierson’s artistic practice while transforming the Threshold artspace with new areas to explore on either side of our signature wave of 22 screens both upstrairs and downstairs. Just follow the trail of artworks from left to right guided by the numbers here corresponding to the ones on the wall-mounted exhibition labels.” Iliyana Nedkova

1. Fukushima (2013) 12 min 32 sec 22-channel video installation New Horsecross Arts commission and acquisition “This work has emerged shortly after my ten week artist’s residency in Fukushima Province in Japan. I travelled from the snowy inland mountains to the disaster areas on the coast. Nuclear, earthquake and tsunami damage is still very evident and refugees are still disposessed. But the land remains beautiful and the people welcoming.” Su Grierson

2. Travelling Light (2010) 6 min 15 sec 22-channel video installation“This is an experimental film made after my earlier visit to Japan in 2010. It continues my exploration of the relationship between image and text. Here the words simply plant concepts that can add to the overall experience of the work. The concepts come from my notes made while travelling.” Su Grierson

3. Water Garden (2011) 3 min 5 sec 22-channel video installation “I have made this work during a very wet artist’s residency in Spring 2010 at Chateau Padies in France. Everything becomes consumed by water.” Su Grierson

4. No.780954 502522 (2010) Lambda print on unstretched canvas “In this work I have explored the relationship between the natural order and the commodification regarding the social aspects of food production. The domestication of landscape and the natural world with images is a very old practice: carvings, paintings, tapestries, ornaments, textile, china and clothing have carried the motifs of the natural world for a long time. I have brought together the decorative elements of both the environment and commerce unmasking the

boundary between the wild, the stylised and the productive forms of nature.” Su Grierson

5. Link (2013) A set of 6 Lambda prints“This project was created during my ten week artist’s residency at Kitakata in Fukushima Province, Japan. The unusually heavy snowfall being experienced at that time became my personal focus of attention although it was an obstacle to the refugees settling permanently in the area. Deep snow makes absence dominant. Signs of human occupation are lost from the landscape. Roads, fences, houses and agricultural buildings are overwhelmed and only patterns, textures and shapes are left to transform the entire landscape.” Su Grierson

6. Close Encounters (2008) 2 min artist’s video on a loopIn the Lithuanian forest a wax palmate leaf burns like a symbolic gesture. As it slowly diminishes a small ant risks all in a journey of exploration over its form.

6a. Un-natural Selection (2007) 2 min artist’s video on a loop“Eggs are a ubiquitous food as well as being symbols of fertility and regeneration. This work looks at the rejects. These are perfectly good eggs that didn’t make the grade visually. The flaws blazoned on the defective eggs have direct references to the human form and issues of physical perfection.” Su Grierson

“Perth’s Threshold artspace shows no signs of watering down its bold remit in programming stunning and inspiring artwork”

Pioneered and managed by Horsecross ArtsCore funded by Creative Scotland and Perth & Kinross Council

artspace 7. Moth (2009) £42 for unframed, signed Lambda print on paper For sales inquiries please contact the Box Office orinedkova@horsecross.co.uk. Part of COLLECT + SUPPORT – our initiative for investing in exclusive limited editions by Scottish and international artists while supporting our commitment to contemporary art “For hundreds of years, landscape and nature have been domesticated on the surfaces of textiles, ceramics and furnishings, but here they are re-patriated into a new pattern. This new pattern symbolically abstracts the basic form, but by re-uniting that abstraction with images from the real world it can take on a different set of perceptions. It is where design reclaims its natural origin.” Su Grierson

8. Marking Time (1992-on) 10 min artist’s slide show on a loopIn no other way do we so publicly and graphically declare our attitudes and intentions towards nature than in our habit of marking trees. For the first time here the work is presented as a slide show featuring a selection from the original 425 photographs of painted marks on trees documented since 1992 in 15 countries.

9. Domesticate-Repatriate (2009) A set of Lambda prints on board“In this project I have tried to recombine the signage of nature – its abstracted and simplified pattern – with photographic representations of the social and natural world. For centuries, landscape and nature have been domesticated on the surfaces of textiles, ceramics and furnishings, but here they are

repatriated into new patterns.” Su Grierson

10. Just Imagine | Flatland | Way Out | Dark Forest (2010) A set of 4 Lambda and giclée prints“An interest in the use of text and word within photography and video has been an ongoing concern of mine. Here the text is part of the visual experience rather than an additional explanation. Text can be a catalyst that directs towards new or obscure meaning; it can intensify the ‘experience’ of the work; it can be poetic or it can actively engage the brain with reason at the same time as the visual cortex is activated by the image.” Su Grierson

11. Aerial Roots (2008) 6 min artist’s video and sound on a loop “With free access to the Scottish Screen archive I selected agricultural footage of traditional farming techniques and responded by creating new recordings of contemporary farming practice. I tried to create a vibrant visual testament to the persistence of agricultural husbandry and production over an era of technological and scientific change.” Su Grierson

12. Un-erased Landscapes (2003) A pair of Lambda prints on MDFCaptured by video the landscape is brought to the computer for editing and becomes indelibly printed on the computer’s memory. After saving the edited video to another format, the material is erased. However, attempts to remove the images from the ‘trash’ can never be entirely successful. Faced with the dilemmas of today’s environmental destruction, this work implies that recoverability might bring a need for new readings and changed vision.

13. Being There (2009) Lambda prints on board“Here I am exploring the touristic practice of the group photograph at a specific place and time. It is a comment on our need to prove that we were there more than to engage with the landscape. The Blue Sky banner stands in for the idealised location. Feel free to take your own photos in front of the banner. You can send images to appear on our Being There wall to inedkova@horsecross.co.uk” Su Grierson

14. Eyeshine (2000) Two Lambda prints on MDF The subject of these works are major industrial complexes sited in rural locations. Presented as sites of wonder and awe, these high-gloss landscapes address our desire for beauty and visual gratification. The rural ‘ideal’ becomes the place which is both the product and producer of that desire.

15. The Sound Tree (2012) Bronze, video and sound Four QR codes (Quick Response codes) link directly to four short artist’s videos of soundscapes. The tree cast in bronze is brought back to life by these QR birds and their birdsongs. To experience the soundscapes follow the suggested QR readers in the artspace or visit us here:www.horsecross.co.uk/about/threshold-artspace/threshold-current

Intersections. Su Grierson. Artist’s book (2013) Special Exhibition Price of £14 For sales inquiries contact the Box Office or inedkova@horsecross.co.uk. 62 pages. Full colour. Hard cover. Featuring contributions by Su Grierson, Iliyana Nedkova, John Brennan, Paul Kingsnorth, Sascha Grierson, Tristan Gooley and Jan van Boeckle. Earlier artist’s publications and cards are also available including Paradise No Exit (2009), Marking Time (2010) and Eyeshine (2000).

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