Personal Topographies: Towards Presence
Athole House Studio Scotland UK
Dunoon Burgh Hall Gallery 2021
Initially described as "perturbations", disturbances within the pictorial field, these presences gradually assumed a greater sense of agency, suggesting intelligences or consciousnesses that resisted clear definition. Their significance lies not in their resemblance to human forms but in their capacity to transform the painted space from a passive topography into an active and inhabited terrain.
Athole House Studio Scotland UK
Dunoon Burgh Hall Gallery 2021
Initially described as "perturbations", disturbances within the pictorial field, these presences gradually assumed a greater sense of agency, suggesting intelligences or consciousnesses that resisted clear definition. Their significance lies not in their resemblance to human forms but in their capacity to transform the painted space from a passive topography into an active and inhabited terrain.
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These perturbations exist along a continuum. At one extreme they may function simply as objects or markers within the pictorial field; at the other, they attain a distinctly anthropomorphic presence. Yet their importance lies less in their appearance than in their capacity to inhabit the terrain. As their relationship to the surrounding space intensifies, so too does their agency, until they begin to act not merely as occupants of the landscape but as forces that organise and animate it.
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These forms are not becoming more human; they are, however, becoming more consequential within the world of the painting. This shift raises an important question. Are these agencies merely inhabitants of the topographies, or are they generated by them through the act of painting itself? If the latter is the case, then their emergence may have been latent within the process from the outset. Rather than appearing within a pre-existing landscape, these presences participate in its continual formation.
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As the relationship between agency and terrain intensifies, landscape begins to give way to habitation. The paintings cease to function solely as topographical spaces and instead become sites of dwelling. The suggestion of enclosure is not simply a formal development but evidence of a deeper transformation, one in which the emergence of presence and the emergence of place become inseparable.
A further development emerged as these presences became increasingly established within the paintings. As agency began to manifest within the pictorial field, the topographies themselves underwent a corresponding transformation. Features that had previously been read as geographic or geological formations gradually began to suggest habitable spaces. These were not fully articulated architectural environments, but rather ambiguous enclosures: indications of walls, corners, thresholds, and the meeting of vertical and horizontal planes.
A further development emerged as these presences became increasingly established within the paintings. As agency began to manifest within the pictorial field, the topographies themselves underwent a corresponding transformation. Features that had previously been read as geographic or geological formations gradually began to suggest habitable spaces. These were not fully articulated architectural environments, but rather ambiguous enclosures: indications of walls, corners, thresholds, and the meeting of vertical and horizontal planes.
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The emergence of enclosure raises a further possibility. If these agencies are not simply occupants of the pictorial field but active participants in its formation, then the development of interior space may be understood as a consequence of their presence. The suggestion of walls, thresholds, and corners does not merely provide a setting in which these entities can dwell; rather, such spaces may be generated through the very act of dwelling itself. In this reading, architecture emerges not as subject matter but as a by-product of agency, a spatial manifestation of presence within the evolving terrain of the painting.
What began as an investigation of topography has therefore evolved into an enquiry into inhabitation. The paintings no longer describe terrain alone; they explore the reciprocal relationship between presence and place. Agency generates space, while space in turn enables dwelling. Through this process, landscape is transformed into place, and place becomes inseparable from the presences that inhabit and continually reshape it.
What began as an investigation of topography has therefore evolved into an enquiry into inhabitation. The paintings no longer describe terrain alone; they explore the reciprocal relationship between presence and place. Agency generates space, while space in turn enables dwelling. Through this process, landscape is transformed into place, and place becomes inseparable from the presences that inhabit and continually reshape it.