Shaun Fraser

26 April – 26 May 2023

Shaun Fraser’s work frequently comments upon notions of identity, links to landscape and connections with place. His practice questions how the landscapes, spaces and places which we inhabit form us and can be translated through personal engagement, privileging one’s own memory as a principal source. Through this he acknowledges that memories of landscape, recalled with clarity when first encountered, can over time shift to become completely obtuse and non-linear, they become part-remembered-part-imagined places. In particular, much of his recent work has been evidence of his attempting to recall through visual means a fleeting sense of a specific place and time. With many of these works Fraser has attempted to distil his experiences of place down to their residual essences. The majority of the works displayed in this selection were developed whilst he was undertaking a residency in sub-arctic northern Iceland during the summer of 2022.

The ‘Faint Summer Shadows’ series communicates the enduring sunlight giving way to a fragile twilight, the shifting of the long days, the swell of the elements as weather closes in and details of the landscape fade and then refocus. The series possesses an impulse towards the ephemeral nature of landscape that is both acutely material and intensely spiritual.

‘Moss Carpet’ and ‘Moss (Sketch) I & II’ also follow on from Fraser’s time in Iceland, drawing from a particularly soft sunny day in August when he took advantage of the conditions and hiked far up into the mountains overlooking the studio – the path giving way to plump springy cushions of green bog. It remains a vivid memory of his time in Iceland.

‘A Northern Place’ ruminates upon Fraser’s native Scottish Highlands. The Highland landscape is a constant theme which he revisits throughout his practice. This work is the latest in a series which grapples with the themes of memory as he recalls an indistinct evanescent location.