Olga Gallery is presenting a double exhibition by Jay Hutchinson and Justin Spiers.
Hutchinson’s display is primarily a launch for a limited-edition book, Landfill. The artist continues his practice of creating delicate and detailed embroidered copies of found trash. A specific site is often chosen by the artist, who then gathers up discarded wrappers and other detritus, using them as the basis for art by the addition of fabric and embroidery silks. In the current display, nine sealed copies of the book are coupled with nine framed works, each based on an individual found wrapper or container.
Next to these works sits a series of strong photographic studies of the top of Lawyer’s Head. The local landmark is depicted as a gloomy and neglected spot, a reflection which ties in with the promontory’s notoriety as a suicide spot. By focusing on the non-scenic side of the headland, Speirs challenges us to look at the location with the bleak eye of someone who is at the end of their tether, and to consider how we view a place depending on our emotions and mindset.
Both displays reflect well on what is beautiful and what is dreary about our landscape, and how our internal views often determine which of these any particular scene might be.
a gallery presents 