‘Between Tides - Riddles of Tentsmuir’ – new Lamb Gallery exhibition

Published On Mon 13 Oct 2014 by Grant Hill

Tentsmuir National Nature Reserve is the inspiration for a new exhibition of work by award-winning artist Derek Robertson in collaboration with scientists and creative practitioners.

‘Between Tides - Riddles of Tentsmuir’ opens at the Lamb Gallery, University of Dundee, on Saturday, 18th October. It features work arising from Derek’s appointment as Artist-In-Residence at Tentsmuir by Scottish Natural Heritage as part of Year of Creative Scotland 2013.

He began a series of innovative projects to explore and celebrate the reserve and its wildlife, bringing together scientists and creatives who used the reserve as a resource for inspiration, research and teaching.

These collaborations resulted in a range of projects and artwork from poetry to paintings, photography to storytelling and this exhibition will display some of the resulting work as well as the background to the collaborations that developed.

“The residency project I completed at Tentsmuir was incredibly interesting,” explained Derek. “The chance to see and interact with the way that others saw and understood the reserve - through the series of collaborations with scientists and other artists - was truly inspiring and had a huge impact on the work I produced.

“It is particularly fitting to show this exhibition at Dundee University, which has such strong links to D'Arcy Thompson and Patrick Geddes, who had a great influence on how we see the interaction of art and science. They also collected specimens at Tentsmuir and befriended John Berry who, as first director of the Nature Conservancy in Scotland, went on to establish Tentsmuir as Scotland's second National Nature Reserve.”

The exhibition also features Derek's work from the residency project, including an artist's book, an interactive mural and the construction of a virtual art trail around the reserve - projects that attracted extensive media interest. Artworks from the residency project have gone on show throughout Scotland as well as venues in London, the USA and Moscow, where the work received an international award.

The exhibition runs from 18th October to 13th December and will be open from 9.30am-8.30pm during the week and 9.30am-4.30pm on Saturdays. Admission is free.

For further information call 01382 384310 or email museum@dundee.ac.uk.  

Notes for editors:

Collaborating on the project were-

Environmental and Scientific Collaborators:

Tom Cunningham
Professor Rob Duck
Sophie Eastwood
Professor Hans Kruuk
Professor Gerald Lincoln
Dr Bernie McConnell

Artistic Collaborators:

Diane Dickson
Gair Dunlop
Corinne Mills
Derek Robertson
Dr James Stewart
Lea Taylor
Smallpetitklein Dance Company

Derek Robertson can be contacted via derekart@btinternet.com or by calling 01382 330451/07714 211835.

For media enquiries contact:
Grant Hill
Press Officer
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384768
E-MAIL: g.hill@dundee.ac.uk
MOBILE: 07854 953277