Art duo in running for top award

Acclaimed artists Matthew Dalziel and Louise Scullion, both lecturers at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, have been shortlisted for one of the world's biggest and most prestigious art prizes.

The artistic duo, who have worked together since 1993, are the only British artists to make it to the final of the biennial Artes Mundi International Arts Prize. The prize aims to recognise exciting artists from around the world whose work comments on the human condition and humanity from different cultural perspectives.

Dalziel + Scullion were nominated for their exploration of the complex relationship between mankind and the natural world.

They will join eight other artists from as far afield as Brazil, India, Australia, Romania, France and Afghanistan at a major exhibition in Wales in the Spring to showcase their work.

If they win they will walk away with £40,000 in prize money and a hugely raised international profile.

"The prize is only given every two years and the nominations are made by very repected curators and artists," explained Matthew Dalziel. "There were 400 nominations this year so getting into the short-list is an achievement in itself."

"The event will give us the chance to exhibit with some of the top artists in the world and to win would catapult us onto a truly international level. It would bring our work to so many more people."

Louise Scullion added that the judging includes a review of each artist's work over the past eight years as well as the exhibition in Wales.

"They are looking for a consistency of vision rather than just one-off successes which is an interesting perspective," she said. "To be honest getting this far is great, but we're really looking forward to exhibiting with the other finalists. The exhibition space is very generous and we're planning to show two major works."

The artistic duo will be hoping the judges take a look at one of their most recent ventures which was officially unveiled at the end of November.

More Than Us, a public art commission for the Inverness headquarters of Scottish Natural Heritage, continues their interest in the natural world and casts an artistic spotlight on a striking but little known moth found only in a handful of colonies on the west coast of Scotland.

The Slender Scots Burnet moth's fragile habitat demands the presence of a black volcanic rock that has eroded to face the sun at a 90 degree angle. From this warmed position the moth then needs three specific food and nectar plants to survive.

Dalziel + Scullion have produced a series of large-scale photographic images which focus on the moth and its habitat. The final work consists of five related images, spanning 25 metres in total, which illuminate the special relationship between the moth and its environment.

They will sit as a permanent installation in the atrium space in the foyer of Great Glen House, Scottish Natural Heritage's new headquarters and represent the organisation's contribution to the Year of Highland Culture 2007.

To accompany the official unveiling of the installation Dalziel + Scullion also organised a symposium on man's relationship with the environment. More Than Us - Conversations between humanity, the arts and ecology brought together leading political, ecological and cultural commentators including ecologist and author David Abram, who was speaking in Scotland for the first time, and Environment Minister Mike Russell.

Conservationist John Lister-Kaye, journalist Ruth Wishart and writer Jay Griffiths also spoke at the event which was held in Inverness Town Hall. For more information on the symposium visit the symposium's website: www.morethanus.co.uk

For more information on Dalziel + Scullion's work visit their website at: www.dalzielscullion.com

Second Saltire award for Dalziel + Scullion

Dalziel + Scullion have also won the 2007 Saltire Award for Art & Crafts in Architecture for their video work Some Distance From the Sun. The video work is a permanent commission in the great hall in the new headquarters of Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) on the Mound in Edinburgh.

Some Distance From The Sun is a continuously played, large-scale high definition video projection looking at the evolution of plants from single cell seaweeds all the way through to complex flowering plants.

This is the second time Dalziel + Scullion have won this award. Their first success was in 2005 for The Ontological Garden, a piece of work comprising stylised versions of common Scottish trees which was commissioned for the Royal Aberdeen's Children's Hospital.

"The judging panel is quite rigorous for the Saltire Awards so to win again is great," said Matthew Dalziel. "It is an endorsement from our peers which is important, but it will also gives clients a greater level of confidence in our work in the future too."