Artists Statement.
ON THE VERGE OF LANDSCAPE.
The work ‘on the verge of landscape’ explores the land quite literally on the verge of landscape and its traditions. The value of the landscape is often seen comparably to artistic landscapes, especially those of the great landscape traditionalists such as Claude Lorraine. These ideals were depicted in the only ‘type’ of landscape paintings deemed ‘worthy’ and has since resulted in a hierarchy of the content and composition of landscapes considered to be valuable.
By photographing the landscape along the side of the road I am representing a more accessible type of landscape. The function of these images is to dismiss the need to ‘arrive’ at the scene of beauty or the ‘worthy’ landscape, to show the viewer that the beauty of the land can be seen in the most unexpected of places and not just at those ‘dictated’ viewpoints.
Photographed from within the primal safety of the car, the work has been produced using a digital camera with video capabilities, utilising both the low-resolution video clips and the un-manipulated digital prints for exhibition purposes; the work seeks to expose the mechanics of the camera. Exploring the surface of the image as well as the subject matter while exposing the artifice of both. Translating the landscape into a grid of coloured squares the work explores the construction of vision as well as the disturbance of memory.
The work produced over the past two years has taken various routes, from capturing landscapes along the side of the road to the more constructed. Travelling to the landscape parks of Capability Brown for example, whose parks created in the 1750′s were intended to be viewed from the moving carriage through vistas and at viewpoints. Heavily influenced by Lorraine’s Arcadian landscapes whose ideals were discovered by the British aristocracy in the 18th century during their Grand Tours of Europe. In response to these notions my landscapes use the digital medium to fully express the unrealistic and unnatural ideologies that we have place on the landscape.
Work produced in Finland; created over a three month period explores the notion of the Northern Arcadia. This visit provided the opportunity to create a new set of images that embodied all of the previously explored theories for instance; the very low temperatures further emphasised the primal comfort of the traveller within the temperature-controlled interiors increasing the distance to the outside landscape. The complete covering of snow created a mythical landscape reminiscent of childhood expectations of a northern land. The snow also created a vastly different, reflective, atmospheric quality of light, which further evoked the fantastic effects of Arcadian landscape traditions. Yet paradoxically also provided a democratic, perhaps banal blanket covering of the hidden landscape. The works intention is ultimately to capture the ideals and anticipation involved in travel. The images are a projection of our imagination; dreams of what could happen there while simultaneously capturing feelings of loss and the memories of having been in a place before provoke.
Resume.
Georgina White Born London 1977
Qualifications: BA (Hon’s) Photography in the Arts, 2/1,
Swansea School of Art and Design, (1997-2000)
MA Photography, Distinction, University of Wales, (2003)
Selected Exhibitions:
‘Elsewhere’ Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea (2003/4)
‘MART’ Loading Bay Gallery, Truman Brewery London (2003)
‘Eisteddfod’ St David’s, 2002 ‘Swansea Open’ Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea (2001)
First prize (2002) ‘Selected Group Exhibition’ Jelly Legg’d chicken Gallery, Reading (2001)
Other Experience: Represented by ‘Millennium Images’, London
