The Edges Of These Isles
Photographer Simon Bray talks about his new project in collaboration with painter Tom Musgrove.
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The Edges Of These Isles, a project born from a desire to collaborate. What could a photographer and a painter learn from each other by exploring the British Isles together?
There were no aims, or targets, we didn’t try and predict or restrict the work that we could make from each of the seven locations, and by no means were we looking to represent the British Isles, we just had a desire to create landscape work and gave each other the excuse to do so.
Spread over 2 years, starting out at Buttermere in the Lake District, and over time, travelling to Lindisfarne, The Brecon Beacons, The Gower Peninsula, Glen Coe, The Causeway Coast and The Peak District, we spent a day or so in each location, with myself documenting as a photographer, and Tom gathering sketches and building a sense of a place to translate into a final piece in his studio back in Manchester. Through our long journeys, time spent talking together on location, walking, eating, meeting up to review past trips, share work and plan future trips, we begun to learn from one another. We were both representing the same place, at the same time, in the same season, weather, having been on the same journey, but the work would look vastly different. Each piece a unique perspective of our personal experience of that place at that time, so we begun to question each other’s practice and process.
As a photographer, my processing happens in the moment. Of course it is influenced from years of image making, study and looking at images, but I have to make practical and creative decisions in that space to create and represent the landscape. Tom’s process is vastly difference. His ability to gain a sensory understanding of a place has truly inspired me. His pace is slow, he’s looking for a colour, gesture, shape, weather formation, a smell or sound, or a combination of them all to build in his mind an understanding of what each place is, and how he is experiencing it through his unique lens. That ability to experience in the present and allow that to inform the work he creates really is the essence of what I will take away from this collaboration, and certainly something that I am working hard to instil into my own creative practice.
We have each created one piece from each location, to be exhibited in a gallery setting at The Whitworth in Manchester for one night only. Alongside the exhibit, we have produced a book, featuring the final pieces, as well as further work, sketches, ideas, personal accounts, maps and more, which will be launched on the night, as well as the premiere screening of a documentary about the project and a Q&A with Tom & I where we’ll try to give further insight into the project. You are very welcome to attend!
We are extremely grateful to Arts Council England, G.F Smith, DoodledoMOTION, Pressision Printing, Fred Aldous and Thornbridge Brewery for supporting this project.
The Whitworth, Manchester – 8th September – 6-9pm Exhibit / Book Launch / Documentary Screening / Q&A with Simon, Tom and John Moores nominated landscape artist, Richard Webb
Facebook Event: www.facebook.com/events/494737284070700
www.theedgesoftheseisles.com
www.instagram.com/theedgesoftheseisles