Shetland Arts has received funding from Scottish Natural Heritage to fund the creation of a large-scale outdoor artwork, to be created in the landscape alongside Bonhoga Gallery, by artist Julie Brook. The work will form part of her upcoming solo exhibition Made, Unmade, which will open to the public on the evening of 14th June. Julie and her two assistants will arrive in Shetland this weekend to start work on the stone structure, which is to be located in the park to the north of the gallery, owned by Shetland Arts.
Julie Brook is a British artist who works with the land, where her response to the forms and materials to hand is expressed through her work. Over the past twenty years she has lived and worked in a succession of wild and remote landscapes, creating sculptures, paintings, drawings and films.
During 2008/09 Julie Brook travelled and worked in the black volcanic desert in central Libya and in the Jebel Acacus mountains in South West Libya. The stark landscape influenced a corresponding shift in the way she made large scale drawings and sculptural work in situ. This led to further exploration in 2011/12 in the semi-desert of North West Namibia where the absolute nature of the light and shadow is expressed in the new sculptural work.
The work is transient and changes significantly according to the light and time of day it is seen. Brook explores these changes through film and photography which become in turn the expression of the work.
Julie Brook's first solo exhibition since her return has just closed at the Dovecot in Edinburgh and the work for exhibition in Bonhoga will be coming directly from there. It is a great addition to the project that Shetland Arts is able to commission her to create a site-specific work for Shetland. Jane Matthews, Shetland Arts" Exhibitions Officer, said: “We're extremely grateful to SNH for their support, enabling this project to happen, strengthening and celebrating the connections between art and the landscape in the Year of Natural Scotland.”
Julie will also be running a drawing workshop in the landscape, also funded by Scottish Natural Heritage, on the 15th June from 11am – 1pm. For more details and booking visit shetlandboxoffice.org or call 01595 745 555.