Ecologies of Displacement
The paintings and video installation shown here were works I did as part of the Ecologies of Displacement residency in 2021-22. They were exhibited at Summerhall Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland in August 2022 and Koel Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan in January 2022 as two, two person shows with my collaborator Farrukh Addnan. To see the two person show and Farrukh’s work, please go to the Koel Gallery exhibition page.
Stories from a virtual childhood home
Many of these paintings were inspired by the discovery of my childhood Ohio home up for sale on the internet. The photographs of empty rooms, that I downloaded from a realtor’s website showed a house that had hardly changed since the early 1970’s when my parents sold it. Looking at the well remembered, empty rooms on the internet, each one became a stage set where personal and historical memories collided. Childhood memories of baking or learning a dance routine butt up against the seismic current events happening at the time (the Vietnam War, Kent State, the Cuyahoga River fire). Other works which were completed in Scotland in Edinburgh or on the Isle of Lewis consider memory spaces in real life.
Painted on linen, canvas or wood panel, each painting has a substrate: a page from a recent Scottish newspaper. Many are the size of traditional broadsheet or tabloid newspapers.
2021-22 Ecologies of Displacement was a 9 month international visual arts residency and collaboration between myself and Pakistani artist Farrukh Addnan supported by the British Council and Creative Scotland and hosted by Koel Gallery, in Karachi Pakistan, and Summerhall, in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Photos by Rob Gunn taken at Ecologies of Displacement, Summerhall, Edinburgh
Photos by Saad Fudd taken at Ecologies of Displacement, Koel Gallery, Karachi
Old Dear in the headlamps (an erroneous representation)
This is a two channel video installation for ECOLOGIES OF DISPLACEMENT exhibited at Summerhall in Edinburgh, Scotland in August 2022 and at Koel Gallery, Karachi in January 2022.
Below I have given a short description of the memories associated with each work.
Oil and acrylic on The Sunday Times, stretched linen, 61cm X 76cm , (24in X 30in), 2021
Jenga is a children’s block game. The word is derived from the Kiswahili ‘kujenga’ meaning ‘to build’.
Oil and acrylic on The Glasgow Herald, stretched linen, 61cm X 76cm , (24in X 30in), 2021
In 1972, a South Vietnam Air Force pilot mistook fleeing civilians for enemy soldiers and attacked. Nine-year-old Phan Thi Kim Phuc received third degree burns from napalm. 21-year-old AP photographer Nick Ut’s photograph capturing the event won the Pulitzer Prize that year.
Oil and acrylic on The Financial Times, stretched linen, 61cm X 76cm , (24in X 30in), 2021
In 1970, when the US expanded the Vietnam War into Cambodia, anti-war demonstrations erupted across the country. At Kent State University in Ohio, the Governor sent in the National Guard. Thirteen unarmed students were shot, four were killed.
Oil and acrylic on The Financial Times, stretched linen, 61cm X 76cm (24in X 30in), 2021
In 1969, after years of industrial dumping, the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio, caught fire. This event helped trigger the formation of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Oil and acrylic on The Sun, stretched linen, 41cm X 56cm (16in X 22 in), 2021
Aged 13, my twin sister, best friend Helen and I were Red Cross volunteers. Without any adult support, we prepared a dance routine to entertain Vietnam War veterans at the local hospital. We were completely unprepared for their overwhelming and disturbing response.
Oil and acrylic on The Sun, stretched linen, 41cm X 56cm (16in X 22 in), 2021
Les Diaboliques (1955), a shocking thriller by Henri-Georges Clouzot, is about a man who is murdered by his wife and mistress. His body mysteriously disappears…
Oil and acrylic on The Scotsman, stretched linen, 41cm X 56cm (16in X 22 in), 2021, PRIVATE COLLECTION
In 1970, I read ‘Curfew’, a terrifying short story by Lucy M. Boston about ancient evil awakened. Aged ten, I started sleeping with my parents.
Oil and acrylic on The Sun, stretched linen, 41cm X 56cm (16in X 22 in), 2021
One day when my parents were out, my brothers, twin sister and I had a water fight on the flat roof of our house. I slipped and fell, falling through an awning onto the driveway below. I was miraculously unhurt.
oil and acrylic on panel, 42cm X 59.5cm (16.5in X 23in), 2021
One day when my parents were out, my brothers, twin sister and I had a water fight on the flat roof of our house. I slipped and fell, falling through an awning onto the driveway below. I was miraculously unhurt.
Oil and acrylic on panel, 42cm X 59.5cm (16.5in X 23in), 2021,
PRIVATE COLLECTION
The mudroom is where you put on your coat and boots in preparation for the severe Ohio winter.
Oil and acrylic on The Glasgow Herald, unstretched canvas, 100cm x 150cm (3feet 2 inches x 4 feet 9 inches), 2021
noun: fractal 1. a curve or geometrical figure, each part of which has the same statistical character as the whole. They are useful in modelling structures (such as snowflakes) in which similar patterns recur at progressively smaller scales, and in describing partly random or chaotic phenomena such as crystal growth and galaxy formation.
Acrylic, graphite, carbon paper, unstretched canvas, tracing from bird flight diverters found at Sanquhar, Scotland. On an entire edition of The Financial Times dated Sept 11, 2021, 220 x 180 (7 feet 2 inches x 5 feet, 9 inches), 2021
adverb: in medias res 1. into the middle of a narrative; without preamble.
Gouache on The Stornoway Gazette, wood panel, 28cm X 35.5cm (11in X 14 in), 2021
The TV doesn’t work, we look out the windows.
Gouache on The Stornoway Gazette, wood panel, 28cm X 35.5cm (11in X 14 in), 2021
The room is the same, yet not the same.
Gouache on The Stornoway Gazette, wood panel, 28cm X 35.5cm (11in X 14 in), 2021
plural noun: tchotchkes 1. NORTH AMERICAN a small object that is decorative rather than strictly functional, a trinket.