The artists selected for this exhibition use nature as their source material to describe the actual or imagined world around them. The psychological impact of nature upon them as individuals or their exploration of a more general Man and Nature, is realised through a range of media and content: from the scientific to the sublime.
Alastair Mackie’s extraordinary work, Untitled (sphere), 2009 (pictured below), is made from mouse skulls found in regurgitated owl pellets and then formed into a hollow sphere, whilst A is to B as B is to C, 2010, is made from wasp nests and re-pulped and pressed into A4 sheets of paper. With a clear historical line to the Vanitas* works of art produced in Northern Europe in the 16th and 17th Centuries, Mackie creates work that is at once stunning, fascinating and macabre, collecting and constructing with masterful skill and precision.
Reece Jones’ drawings also allude to the super-natural with large, unique drawings streaked with piercing shafts of white. These beams seem altogether unnatural, made from headlights, fireworks or some other force.
G L Brierley, Sam Douglas, Katayoun Dowlatshahi, Edwina Fitzpatrick, Reece Jones, Rob Kesseler, Chinwook Kim, Alastair Mackie, Mark Wright
www.collyerbristow.com