About
Leyden Gallery are proud to present the work of the artist Lindsay Moran, sculptor Atsuko Nakamura and photographers Stuart Kerr and Joanna Casey; each of whom contribute to the concept of delving implicit to this show. To delve implies a movement into another space, a desire to immerse elsewhere. The structures and languages of the urban sites we occupy still hold the mythic remnants of this desire living in an âurban jungle' connotes architectural profusion and confusion. Within this modern mayhem, we still value and implant spaces of green and patches of nature. As cities overcrowd and forests diminish; becoming the reduced sites of production for our overloaded lives, we turn to delving elsewhere. âDelve', in transporting images and remnants of forests and greenery into the heart of the urban landscape, questions, and in doing so, reconfigures these sites imbued with legendary and mythical tales. Here, where art, memory and yearning enter into a bond of visual splendour, the skewed nature of a precious eco balance is also highlighted. Two of the artists in this show literally take their practice into the forests around Britain ancient, yet ever-becoming sites, filled with fabulous tales and magical light.
Atsuko Nakamura's use of natural materials - in this case driftwood gathered from forests in Wales and salt crystals, become important metaphors. Driftwood has been presented as a symbol of natural evolution, as well as a fragment of time and memory. Reading and following the features of these natural materials, their shape, smell, texture, and even sound have enabled Nakamura to produce beautiful evocative site-specific sculptural pieces along with a series of connected drawings.
Stuart Kerr is an established landscape photographer from Scotland. With his intense focus on the textures and mood created by the environment in its natural prevailing light his photography invites the viewer to delve momentarily, yet deeply into the scenes of Highland Scottish forests. The concept of the pause is core to his practice, the pause does not lend itself to unnecessary exaggeration; it is a fleeting encounter in the woodland, which resonates deeply with the monumental and ancient.
Photographer Joanna Casey has over a period of more than a year produced a series of photographs called âCompost Bucket: A Self Portrait in Waste', these jewel-like images of waste and decay form a type of Memento Mori. Representing a natural transition, decay is often thought of as belonging to the past but as Casey's work shows, it is necessarily part of our present and can preoccupy our thoughts of the future.
Lindsay Moran's practice is concerned with creating complex narratives that can be read through the juxtaposition of symbol, metaphor, colour, mood, design and even technique. All of these converging and challenging elements help to draw the viewers of his richly painted canvases and birch panels into an imaginary world of magical realism; it is here where other worlds of possibility and identity dwell. Through his rich visual pallet his work aims to engage the viewer's own emotional depth, bringing with it a sense of wonderment and magic.
