20 October 2006

"Bird of the Devil" takes flight

Dundee Contemporary Arts meeting room, Saturday October 21st, 2 pm.

Some of Scotland's leading writers and artists have collaborated to create several new species of birds - some of them sinister, some exotic - images of which are captured in a new book launched this weekend in Dundee.

Born out of traditional "LadyBird" book illustrations and initially distributed as home-crafted postcards sent from the Summer Isles, the creatures seen in "Bird Of The Devil", by Edward Summerton, take on an altogether more sinister and otherworldly look.

Edward, an artist and lecturer in Fine Art at Duncan of Jordanstone College, University of Dundee, has produced "Bird Of The Devil" in collaboration with some of Scotland's leading writers and artists including Michael Marra, Laura Hird, Graham Fagen, Neil Mulholland, Norman Shaw, Robert Crawford, Lee O'Connor and Bill Duncan.

The book features a collection of Summerton's most recent paintings, which were shown in Denmark for three months this summer. The paintings are Summerton's altered Lady Bird bird book illustrations (gouache on book illustration) and were created during a summer holiday in the Summer Isles off Scotland’s west coast, home to a famous post office and an influence on the cult classic film "The Wicker Man".

Edward explains how the setting provided the inspiration for what ended up as "Bird Of The Devil":

"The Summer Isles seemed to be the perfect location for a remote Scottish holiday. It was allegedly the place my family name came from and its location was the source for Lord Summerisle's island in the cult original British "Wicker Man" film. It also has this private Post Office which has a unique collection of stamps and postcards only found on the island."

"There was a collection of the LadyBird natural history books in the cottage we were staying in, and I found their beautiful melancholic illustrations were far more interesting than the postcards available in the Post Office.The pages were easily removed, altered with brush and gouache, franked and stamped from the legendary post office."

"The history and mythologies surrounding the Summer Isles and it's relation to the Wicker Man somehow leaked into the images I had worked with, hatching some strange breed of pagan birdlife."

Edward invited 17 writers and artists, some of whom had received the original postcards, to each give a bird from the book a fictional name and write a short story/description of the bird. The response brought forth such wonderful creatures as the Panticle (Pedimaximus cantorus) by Michael Marra, Blood Sucking Dunny Gull (Larus sanguinis) by Laura Hird, Sentry Owl (Strix immobile) by James Robertson,The Haar Ousel (Acanthis nebulosa) by Bill Duncan, and the Possil Bird (Possilus possilus) by Robert Crawford.

This is the most recent project involving Eddie's fascination with the representation of nature and natural history through book illustrations, museum dioramas and field recordings.

"Bird Of The Devil", a Strict Nature Reserve book, features 40 pages with full colour illustrations and is printed in a limited edition of 500, each numbered. The books are available to buy at the launch and from www.edwardsummerton.co.uk

Edward Summerton has exhibited artworks internationally in the form of painting, prints, books, objects and sound works. He has organised events and exhibitions from the USA to South Korea.The Royal Scottish Academy published a collection of his work in the book "Guilding the Summer Town" this year, the first publication by the RSA in 30 years.

Edward Summerton is available for interview and can be contacted through the University of Dundee Press Office. Images of the work (`Sentry Owl' attached as an example) are available from the Press Office.

For media enquiries contact:

Roddy Isles
Head, Press Office
University of Dundee
Nethergate Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384910
E-MAIL: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk