From the Valley
Emily Beckmann, Bea Drysdale, Emma Hamilton
4 – 25 March
An exhibition of work by three artists based around Stirling, using various mediums, including sculpture and photography.
Emily Beckmann’s installation incorporated video, performance and textiles. Inspired by culturally significant events Beckmann’s work is rooted in time and location, questioning what is valued as precious by society. Paying particular attention to objects in the local collections of the Dunblane Museum and the Stirling Smith, this body of work examined historical objects within new contexts; their function as souvenirs of past lives, and as common threads of the human condition throughout time.
Emma Hamilton won the Jerwood Photography prize in 2004 with her cibachrome prints depicting meticulously crafted, still life set-ups using meat to construct floral arrangements. Both beautiful and repulsive these arrangements emulate Dutch still life paintings from the 17th & 18th century. In this series of works Hamilton continues to explore ideas of mortality using traditions of the memento mori, whilst challenging conventional readings though the juxtaposition of the animal organs presented as seductive flora.
Bea Drysdale works intuitively to create large-scale sculptures from tissue paper. Through an exploration of this material’s limitations Drysdale aims not to control or force the delicate paper into form but to work within its boundaries assisted by just glue and stitching. The fragility of the material is contradicted by the sturdy looking structures Drysdale succeeds in making, pushing the limitations a little more each time. The architecture of the space the work inhabits, along with the natural forces of gravity, are key factors to the outcome, highlighting the relationship between the object and its surroundings.
Bea Drysdale, Untitled (Yellow),tissue paper, glue 2006
Bea Dysdale, Untitled (White),tissue paper, glue 2006
Emma Beckmann, Wishing Tree Spot, detail, 2006
Emma Hamilton, Installation View, 2006
Emma Hamilton, Flores Carneus (Still Life with Roses in a Red Vase),cibachrome print 2004
