19 October 2009

Landscape opens up at Cairngorm mountain

A team based at the University of Dundee has completed the latest phase of the CairnGorm Arts Initiative, which will be officially opened on Friday, October 23rd.

Cairn Gorm : Reading A Landscapeis a series of site-specific artworks developed by the team led by Arthur Watson, a lecturer in Fine Art at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, part of the University.

Arthur said the project was close to his heart as his parents had taken him up to the Cairn Gorm Mountains each winter from an early age. As such, he was familiar with the spectacular natural beauty that forms the backdrop to the project.

'I’ve been going up and down to Cairn Gorm for a long time, and a lot of my research interests focus on the Scottish culture and landscape,' he said. 'The team I got involved each had their own area of expertise that they brought to the project.'

'As a team, they had never worked together before, so it was quite exciting, and I’m sure visitors will really enjoy the result of this collaboration.'

Alongside Professor Will Maclean, Arthur has designed A Northern Viewpoint, which is situated at the entrance to the Cairn Gorm car park overlooking Badenoch and Strathspey towards the mountains of the North and West.

Water from three streams flows under bronze plates, which carry quotes from James MacPherson's Ossianic poetry, before cascading down natural stone buttresses. A path above the car park leads to a central staircase with seating and a soundscape.

Situated further to the south is Mountain to Sea - Beyond Site, a video projection and camera obscura designed by video artists Mel Woods and Lei Cox. The work is housed in The Dark Room, a new building designed by Perthshire architect Fergus Purdie, a part-time lecturer at the College.

Incorporating a camera system built by a NASA scientist, the work charts four seasonal journeys made over the course of a year from Cairn Gorm to the coast, following each of the four cardinal compass points.

The Mountain Railway’s Base Station houses a series of works in word and image by Arthur and graphic designer Andy Rice. Snow Words: Hollow of the Snow is a large tonal woodcut encircled by a glossary of words for conditions of snow and ice in Scots, Gaelic and the cant of lowland travelers.

Hidden Corries: Drawing Dangerouslycelebrates a cumulative poetry of climbers' route names surrounding screenprinted images of the crags which they traverse.

Throughout its three-year build phase, the project has been supported by several public and private agencies. It will be opened by Robert Livingston, Director of Hi-Arts, one of the project sponsors, at 1.30pm on Friday October, 23rd. Guests will then be taken on a tour of the works.

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
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