Latheronwheel, Scotland – Bullseye Projects presents the inaugural exhibition at The Byre, a new exhibition space located in northern Scotland. Permeable Structure will be available to view by appointment through August 5, 2018.
The buildings we inhabit have complex lives. By peeling back the layers, we reveal histories of use. The sometimes indelible but often fragile clues hint at the stories that moved through and between these spaces. Add to this the world outside that shines in through the windows and grows into the crevices. Our own memories, emotions, and aspirations, which we bring to every space we encounter, create new dimensions. It is through this confluence of meaning – between the buildings, the light, the land, history, and the people - that the rigid structures in which we live become permeable. Permeable Structure brings together the work of Silvia Levenson, Emily Nachison, Michael Rogers, and Karlyn Sutherland. The exhibition draws from the landscape, deep history, and culture of Caithness, the northernmost county in Scotland.
Silvia Lenvson's Strange Little Girl is part of a series of works dealing with the intricate lives of children. “Those years delineate an era where the edge between reality and dreams is very evanescent,” says Levenson. By combining the head of a deer with the body of child, Levenson emphasizes what she calls the “dreamlike and unreal world of children.” Emily Nachison’s multi-part installation pulls the flora, fauna, and mythology of Caithness into the largest chamber of The Byre. Apparition consists of twin horse heads with long horse hair and acrylic manes. Cast in ghost-like clear glass, the heads reference the legendary Kelpie, but also the minister’s horse long buried in the adjacent garden. Similar stories influenced Michael Rogers, who spent ten days in The Byre listening to the workers, the sheep, and the building itself. “After days of taking notes in the barn, slowly the walls began to whisper,” says Rogers. “It is the sense of the unseen and unheard that I wanted to explore and coax into being.” Rogers’ installation of everyday materials and tools, cast in glass, installed as if anticipating another day of work, manifest “an ineffable sense of presentiment…an intuition telling you that there is much more here than meets the eye.” Karlyn Sutherland, an architect and artist, created a site-specific installation studying the light and shadow created by the architecture of the building. Using chalk, Sutherland traced the geometric light patterns cast by the windows and noted the day and time. By dusting flour into the air she was able to see, physically, the light paths penetrating the space. “The five geometric forms…are cross-sections of the paths I tracked,” says Sutherland. “Designed to be fully illuminated for one fleeting moment on one particular day each year, they are slivers of light.”
