Lift exhibition opens this week

Orkney Museum will be showing an exhibition of new work by three local artists this month.

Ingrid Budge, Alan Watson and Rebecca Marr will exhibit together for the first time in a show they have called ‘Lift’.

The title, an Orkney dialect word for sky, reflects their shared interest in Orkney skies and clouds. The exhibition opens on Saturday 7 April.

Alan explained the background to the show: “Late last year, I suggested to Ingrid and Rebecca - because I could see there were distinct parallels within the work we were all producing - that we should consider having a group exhibition. I was delighted, and very pleased, when they both readily agreed.”

Rebecca said: “When we got together to discuss the show we started to think about the commonalities in our work. It was apparent that we are all sky watchers and use our work to express an awe with the vast Orkney skies.”

Ingrid added: “After we had our theme we each went off and made new work with the skies as our focus. We hope that together we have created an exhibition which shows how three artists thinking about the same thing can respond in different but connected ways.”

Alan’s work has centred on the land and seascapes of Orkney. In particular, it results from the observation of light, and the nuances of mood and atmosphere. All the works are an attempt to create a connection with the place, and the feeling of being there in that particular moment.

Rebecca made work for the show thinking about the potential for breath to be carried up on thermals and become part of a cloud.

“Like on cold mornings when moist breath hangs like clouds in front of us then drifts up,” she explained. “The idea is one that has floated around in my head after reading about the possibility in Gavin Pretor-Pinney’s the Cloudspotter’s Guide.”

With this thought in mind she looked for clouds that suggested breath, inverting the photographs and introducing a shifted colour palette to focus more on their form. The titles of her photographs are all words associated with breathing out.

Ingrid inadvertently approached the title of the show in a practical way, using a technique with polaroid photographs that lifts the image creating a transfer. The resulting images underscore the brooding textures of Orkney weather.

The exhibition runs until Saturday 28 April.