Dalziel + Scullion: Home

Exhibitions

9 March - 28 April 2002

A collaboration between MK Gallery, The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh and Manchester Art Gallery.

Home is an exhibition devoted to the work of Scottish artists Dalziel + Scullion. It features a body of new work recently commissioned by The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, and includes video projections, large-scale sculptural pieces and photographic works. It will occupy all three of MK G’s elegant gallery spaces.

Dalziel + Scullion’s art presents a rediscovery of landscape, both as a visual theme and as a means of reflecting on fundamental ideas about the world we live in today.At the heart of their work is a fascination with time-scales, such as the vast gap that exists between the limit of a human life-span and the incomprehensible span of geological processes and creation. The majority of their work to date has featured the north east of Scotland, but many of the new pieces are set against the backdrop of the magnificent glacial landscape of northern Scandinavia.

Speaking of their work the artists say, “Over the last three years we have made aseries of trips to Norway, in particular to the area south east of the enormous Jostedalsbreen glacier. There we found landscapes that were reminiscent of places in Scotland, however the act of creation was still very active in these valleys. The vast presence of the glacier was everywhere – its physical form as immense as acity, but vulnerable to the vagaries of a few degrees of temperature change. Its energy was grindingly slow, yet powerful enough to wrench apart mountains. It seemed to be at odds with the speed and transience of our modern lives, but at the same time it acts as a metaphor of our own conscious life, of our own capabilities for change and renewal.”

In the book which accompanies the exhibition Keith Hartley observes “…, ultimately, the general tenor of their work is one of an informed and guarded optimism. If wecan only learn to use modern technology to get closer to understanding Nature, there is hope for humanity. Dalziel and Scullion’s work provides highly poetic and resonant metaphors for that closer relationship.”

Matthew Dalziel + Louise Scullion trained in Dundee and Glasgow respectively, and have worked together since 1993. They have exhibited both in the UK and abroad, including Glasgow, Edinburgh, Bristol, Rome, Melbourne and Tokyo. Home was first seen at the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh and will be shown at Manchester Art Gallery from December 2002 – February 2003. It is funded by the Henry Moore Foundation and the National Touring Programme through the Arts Council of England and Dalziel + Scullion were assisted by a Scottish Arts Council Visual Artists’ Award.