Part of the Pan-Scotland Generation programme, Tumadh: Immersion has been specially commissioned by An Lanntair and the Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh.
Working with media including photography, video, sound and sculpture, Dalziel + Scullion confront and challenge our supposition that how it is, is how it needs to be. They explore alternative models for living using the environment of Scotland for inspiration, particularly the epic dramas wrought out in macro and micro habitats. These complex narratives, played-out in diverse landscapes, serve to heighten our perspective on the human vacuum we inhabit.
In this ambitious two-part work, they explore ideas around urbanization. In a world where for the first time in human history, more than half the global population live in towns and cities, Dalziel + Scullion look to a colony of seabirds where in excess of 170,000 birds converge to breed and rear their young each year. Here cacophonies of guttural accents accompany territorial squabbles, coquettish preening, stolid incubation and frenzied feeding: exuberant yet highly evolved lifestyles that have adapted to harsh and testing conditions.
The assembled footage of these birds in the piece allows us to look beyond the initial spectacle of the scene and to engage with the individuals and personalities of this rich habitat. With a specially commissioned soundtrack by Aidan O’Rourke it is a powerful evocation and immersive experience of an intense and precarious environment.
With the exhibition is a full educational programme titled Earthwire. This references energy, a connection to the earth and includes a residential session in Harris. A group of young people will work with artists, and actively engage with the landscape in, canoeing, climbing, walking, camping etc to create artwork. They will also travel to the Dovecot exhibition and other Generation shows and record the city as if they were naturalists as a counterpoint to their Hebridean work. A video ‘app’ has been commissioned so that short films can be uploaded and juxtaposed on-line video triptychs.
Tumadh: Immersion by artists Dalziel + Scullion is part of GENERATION: a major, nation-wide exhibition programme showcasing some of the best and most significant artists to have emerged from Scotland over the last 25 years. It shows the generation of ideas, of experiences, and of world class art on an unparalleled scale by over 100 artists in more than 60 venues.
GENERATION is delivered as a partnership between the National Galleries of Scotland, Glasgow Life and Creative Scotland and is part of Culture 2014, the Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme