Tumadh: Immersion is an exciting and extraordinary new commission from Dovecot which will transform the North and South Galleries into an immersive and experiential space with sound and tactile qualities, created by Dundee based artists Dalziel + Scullion.
The two parts of the exhibition, in Edinburgh and at An Lanntair in Stornoway on Lewis, are a coherent and related whole which also work when viewed as separate exhibitions.
Dalziel + Scullion’s practice explores the complex, and at times strained relationship, between mankind and the natural world. Tumadh: Immersion continues to investigate the artist’s understanding of different responses and engagements with landscape. This ambitious, multi-part, and dual site work pays particular attention to the specifics of the urban locations of the exhibition venues. The work encourages us to examine ideas or belief, pilgrimage, cleansing and transformation through immersion in the substance of the earth.
Inspired by the relationship Tweed has to the landscape of Lewis and Harris – Dalziel + Scullion explore how the tactile and physical qualities of textile can mimic and enhance the feeling of immersion in the natural world. The on-going thesis throughout their practice is to do with our increasing dislocation from the natural world and that real immersion in nature requires active concentration and involvement. This is something that the they aim to guide us towards, with this show in particular concentrating on how textile and clothing can both reflect natural spaces and dictate our experience of it.
To this end a further element of the exhibition is the creation and design of four garments. These garments are made from Harris Tweed and are a gently subversive take on the outdoor clothing normally worn when preparing to go out into wild landscapes – such as weather resistant Gore-Tex, technical hiking gear and similar clothing designs. These garments instead encourage immersive natural experiences, for example a rain jacket that has a hood which is open to the elements and only allows you to look up so that you can focus on the rain falling on your face, and another with a padded back that allows you to lie down in rocky landscapes. Dalziel + Scullion are working with the musician Aidan O’Rourke on the accompanying soundtrack for the two shows.
This exhibition forms part of GENERATION, a national programme taking place in the summer of 2014 that will celebrate the wealth of contemporary art that has developed in Scotland over the last 25 years. Over 60 venues across the country are participating in this unique programme. Please find further details here
GENERATION is produced through a core partnership between National Galleries of Scotland, Glasgow Life and Creative Scotland, with the assistance and expertise of partners including VisitScotland and EventScotland, British Council Scotland, Museums Galleries Scotland, Education Scotland, Young Scot, Children in Scotland and the BBC. GENERATION is part of the Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme, which is a partnership between the Glasgow 2014 Organising Committee, Glasgow Life and Creative Scotland.
