I miss the land but does the land miss me?

‘Humans are a product of the earth’s surface – dust of her dust. As the surface of the earth presents obstacles, so it offers channels for the easy movement of humanity.’
Geographer Ellen Semple

Art Seen is pleased to present the group exhibition 'I miss the land but does the land miss me?'

Participating artists: Panayiotis Doukanaris (CY), Carali McCall (CA), Henrietta Simson (UK), Amy Stephens (UK). By means of expanding painting and sculpture processes, the four artists in this exhibition explore the material spaces we inhabit;

Carali McCall uses the line as a drawing process to address time and energy executed through performance. By holding a piece of the physical landscape (a rock) she is interested in the act of endurance. In this exhibition, McCall and Stephens have collaborated with the indigenous landscape to shape a new performance on the opening evening with documentation and artworks that will remain in place for the duration of the show.

Panayiotis Doukanaris’ blank canvases embody the uncanniness of encountering an indeterminate landscape. In their transparent fragility, they paint the becoming of a place, the birth of the familiar and the emergence of a poetic encounter. The works offer a new approach to traditional methods of painting questioning the before and aftermath of a previous performance. The artist is also interested in the (re)configuration of collective and individual identities.

Henrietta Simson’s works disrupt the structures that have traditionally shaped how the landscape is viewed. This is achieved by stressing the material and the affective power of the image. The works on display play with illusion and embodied presence. They offer realist assumptions that draw out the connotations of care that accompany the categorising and collecting frameworks of the museum diorama.

Amy Stephens’ artwork is underpinned by geology and travel. The main focus of her practice is to re-appropriate and recycle objects from the immediate landscape. By elevating local artefacts, she offers an exchange of ideas and a new perspective about the everyday. All rocks and minerals come with their own story, but the abundance of any material can be a source of invisibility.

Tectonic plates are always on the move and therefore so is the process of building new territories and spaces in between. As a collective, the artists in this exhibition have worked alongside each other to bring an exhibition together that demonstrates a commitment to their chosen materials and to their relationship with time amongst the landscape.

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