EXHIBITION:
TUESDAY 29 MARCH - SATURDAY 2 APRIL 2022

CIRCUS ARTSPACE @
INVERNESS CREATIVE ACADEMY
Gym Hall, Stephen's Street, Inverness IV2 3JP

FREE ENTRY​  |  OPEN DAILY
Tue & Sat 10am-8pm, Wed/Thurs/Fri 10am - 5pm

OPENING EVENT:
TUESDAY 29 MARCH, 6 - 8PM
Meet some of the artists and join us for a celebratory drink!
 

Three artists, three journeys; from coastline to mountain glen. Cianalas explores place, through different perspectives, using sculpture, painting and walking.  

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Fundamentally, humans are a ‘place-making, place-loving species’. Place is somewhere that is inhabited, created, needed. Memories, ownership, connection and belonging and a particular ordering of things in a world that has a socio-geographical basis for lived experiences. Place is everywhere. Place can be physical or psychological in nature; an abstracted voyage into colour and form, emotions, ecological identity and the ethics of making and materials. 

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Every life is a tale of meaning; tiny fractions of knowable truths and histories.

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‘Abstract knowledge about a place can be acquired in short order if one is diligent. The visual quality of an environment is quickly tallied if one has the artist eye. But the “feel” of a place takes longer to acquire. It is made up of experiences, mostly fleeting and undramatic, repeated day after day and over the span of years.'

Yi-Fu Tuan, Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience

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‘Language is not primarily communication, it says the relationship of the human being to the universe, it expresses original experience, it is the evidence of original experience.’

Kenneth White, On Scottish Ground

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‘Felt pressure, sensed texture and perceived space can work upon the body and so too upon the mind, altering the textures and inclinations of thought.’

Robert MacFarlane, The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot

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This exhibition is part of the Circus Graduate Associates programme and features: 

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LOUISE ALLAN

Louise Allan’s paintings are informed by her surroundings. It is with this sense of place, this experience of living with the land forms and the environment that compel her to convey her feelings towards these phenomena through the medium of paint. The wild rugged landscape of hill and moorland, wide open seas, lochs and dramatic weather patterns produce ever changing light which provide for dramatic mood changes between luminosity and obscuration. Louise’s process involves working with mixed media, applied in layers, allowing patterns and texture to form. The medium is worked through brush, knives or pouring on paper or canvas, adapting the format size as the process requires.

www.louise-allan.co.uk  |  Instagram @louiseallanart

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LAR MACGREGOR

Using scrapped copper, found plastic, wood and stone as a 3D storyboard, Lar MacGregor is on a constant search for home. She walks to find self. She walks to understand the lore of the land, it’s song-lines and it’s singers. The ghost trails that Lar follows are a route to the present day; a deep time reimagining of the origins of responsibility in the protection of people and place. ‘If I can feel the land, connect to the historical references to lost and found alike and the trail of humanity in footprints, surely this will lead to a resolution of sorts?’ - Lar MacGregor

www.larmacgregor.com  |  Instagram @larmacgregor   |  Graduate Associates Blog Post

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MORAG SMITH

Morag Smith is a contemporary abstract artist working in installation, sculpture and digital media taking inspiration from ideas around landscape and place. Taking her work back to a pared back form, with key decisions coming back to shape and colour. Enjoyment and fun is found in the simplicity of these forms combined with the use of industrial materials such as perspex, concrete, resin and paints. Morag explores the traces that are left in the land which contain her understanding of how she recognizes landscape, including personal markers that she has left as placement-holders.

www.moragsmith.scot  |  Instagram @moragsmith_artist

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WALK - MAKE - CREATE
Free Exhibition Activity Sheets for Adults & Children

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These activity sheets by artist Lar MacGregor will be available to collect within the exhibition or you can download PDFs below. Large print version also available. 

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Covid-19: we ask that you observe social distancing. There will be a track and trace system at the entrance and please wear a face mask whilst inside the building.