Gayle Chong Kwan: The Obsidian Isle

About

Ricefield arts and cultural centre is excited to present a series of activities and events, based around memory and the senses and developing out of the series of new large-format photographic works created by the artist Gayle Chong Kwan during her residency with Ricefield.

'The Obsidian Isle' is a fictional island created by the artist, supposedly located near
the isle of Staffa in the Inner Hebridies, Scotland, which houses many of the lost and destroyed buildings and places of Scotland, such as structures removed during the Highland Clearances, buildings destroyed during the 2nd World War, and structures torn down to make way for new developments. 'The Obsidian Isle' is an island where visitors can remember and Scotland can collectively 'forget' and move on from its past. 'The Obsidian Isle' is inspired by landscape elements found in Macpherson's 'Ossian Poems', the blind 3rd century poet Macpherson 'discovered' in the 18th Century.

Work developed during the week-long activities will be part of 'The Obsidian Isle' publication, to be launched in2011 to accompany the exhibition of the ten large-format photographic works at Street Level Photoworks, Trongate 103, Glasgow.