Toni Hartill Art: "Scattered" - group exhibition

Friday, 24 May 2019

"Scattered" - group exhibition - Its almost a wrap!

Detail of installation by Toni Hartill

Only one week to go til "Scattered" is de-installed at Studio One Toi Tu.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to all who came to the opening event and who have visited the show, passing on your positive and supportive comments.Still a wee bit of time to pop in to see the show and don't forget to check out the window display on the way past!

The original concept for this exhibition was sown by Celia and Elle and I were easily and readily inspired to be involved. Thanks to Celia for instigating and motivating us in the first instance and thanks both to Celia and Elle for being such fun and easy to work with collaborators.

Thanks also to the staff at Studio One Toi Tu for being so supportive and easy to work with throughout the process of planning and installing the exhibition.

Below is a photographic record of the show

plus our personal artist statements

for a bit of an insight into our individual works.

"Scattered"

Separated geographically, but connected through ideas, and the starting point of a shared quote, Scattered brings together artists Elle Anderson, Toni Hartill and Celia Walker.

The exhibition comprises an expansive scattering of work that responds to ideas around shifting horizons, uncertain pathways and traveled landscapes. Individual works act as field notes, working drawings, partial renderings and snapshots, working towards an understanding of encountered places.

The starting point - a quote:

"Half a mile offshore, walking on silver water, we crossed a path that extended gracefully and without apparent end to our north and south.

It was a shallow tidal channel and the water it held caught and pooled in the sun, such that its route existed principally as flux; a phenomenon of light and currents.

Its bright line curved away from us: an ogee whose origin we could not explain and whose invitation to follow we could not disobey, so we walked it northwards, along that glowing track made neither of water nor of land, which led us further and still further out to sea."

Robert Macfarlane, 'Silt' from The Old Ways p. 59

Celia Walker

Artist's statement:

"The walking tracks I take are seldom in the wild or in uncertain terrain, they are more likely the hard and worn paths and mapped spaces of the urban landscape. The markers and way-finders of these urban routes, and the surfaces themselves, hold just as much interest for me as the natural landscapes I encounter - this work for Scattered is an assemblage of notes and observations from walks undertaken here and overseas, an open-ended journal of inhabited spaces."

Media: Various printmaking processes, including solar plate etching,

collagraph, linocut and digital.

Elle Anderson

Artist's Statement:

The Answer is in the Soil I

‘Half a mile offshore, walking on silver water, we crossed a path that extended gracefully and without apparent end to our north and south………….‘its route existed principally as flux’………….

Just like this path, there is no apparent end to soil. It exists North & South and even East and West. Always in a state of flux from additions to losses or removal. All the while supporting, anchoring, sequestering and being totally alive.

Then how do we get the answers?

But what am I actually looking for?

This body of work is very much at the start of Elle’s explorations with soil. The quote provided her with a platform to start exploring North, South, East & West on her new property.

Since becoming the co-owner of 12 acres in the King Country on pumice soil, Elle is trying to translate her small scale garden soil knowledge to a larger area. Using a scattered approach of research through reading, talking, doing and at times going against conventional practices she is hoping that she will find answers.

The soil samples in this body of work are all collected on the property, from a random selection of spots.

Media: Soil, paper, sample bags, drawing.