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Rising Horizon

2019 · The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh

This ongoing painting project began in 2017, directly after the exhibition Pelàda. Pelàda focussed on Venice – a city already feeling the force of sea level rise. Here, in this more recent project, the global issue of sea rise is discussed, without focussing on one location.

Each one of these artworks has been painted from imagination. Most are titled as a percentage, charting an ascending horizon-line. Every piece has been painted upon a recycled substrate. The idea for this show was to use mostly metal supports, though there are a couple on wood and a series on recycled (re-formed) plastics, too. Often, the surfaces themselves make reference to reasons behind sea rise: a copper boiler hints at thermal expansion; steel advertisements for motor oil and road signs reference pollution and over consumption.

The exhibition was given two double-page spreads in The Scotsman, featured in a series of Art North blog posts and selected as The Herald’s critic’s choice.

A set of paintings from the series remain available for exhibition and purchase, and can be found here
See more on Instagram: #RisingHorizonProject

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Horizon Rising

2020 · Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum & Arts Centre, North Uist

One year later, a re-imagined version of the series – featuring new and up-close paintings of sea surface – was presented at the water’s edge in Lochmaddy, on a low-lying island off Scotland’s north-west coast. The works were arranged this time so that visitors observed a rising horizon-line as they circled the gallery.

This series is of particular relevance to North Uist and Taigh Chearsabhagh. Climate Central identifies North Uist as one of Scotland’s most at risk locations and the arts centre itself cannot develop on its existing site due to predicted storm surge sea levels. The horizon is no far-off or distant concern for coastal communities such as these.

The display was listed as part of Scotland’s Year of Coasts & Waters 2020, with a set of events linked to the show.

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