From Scotland and Japan to An Lanntair
Hosted as part of An Lanntair’s Hebridean Book Festival, Faclan, Confluence of North opened in the art centre’s Main Gallery on Saturday October 23, presenting a creative collaboration between Scotland and Japan with an artist-led exchange project between four artists in Scotland and four artists from Spirit of North in Japan.
The Scottish artists involved are Gillian Macfarlane, Su Grierson, Inge Panneels, Kyra Clegg; and from Japan, Maruyama Yoshiko, Asai Mariko, Maruyama Tokio, Takizawa Tatsushi. The collaboration has also led to a series of exhibitions and events engaging additional artists and audiences in both countries.
Focusing on new working structures and processes, the project has connected artists from Northern latitudes separated by geographical distance, since 2013. It aspires to a global network through which northerners from across the world, and anyone drawn to the north, can build a 'northern philosophy' and understand the northern cultural 'spirit'.
This is based on the idea that North is always conditional, a direction rather than a location, and that our ideas about it can be fundamental to how we see and relate to our own life and culture.
Confluence of North contains both newly commissioned and pre-existing artworks from digital media to silk prints to watercolour to glass works. A final publication will also connect artists with audiences in both countries.
The exhibition is free to attend and will run in An Lanntair’s Main Gallery until November 27.
Check An Lanntair website www.lanntair.com for further details.