Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
University of Edinburgh
A Parliament of Lines
This output comprises works by Todd in which he experiments with drawing as a form and way of interpreting landscape, and its relevance to contemporary art practices.
Todd’s work builds on a long history of independent landscape drawing in Europe and Asia from the fifteenth century, through the principal examples of Altdorfer in Germany and Sesshu in Japan, and relates this to contemporary practice via 20th century modernist’s such as Lucio Fontana.
The works are made over an extended period of time and employ an additive process using multiple layers of varnish, that allows Todd to place successive (mostly) drawn landscape quotations within a monochrome colourfield. This enables a reading of the work in which different temporal, geographical and emotional associations can be made in direct relation to one another, building up images of the land as layered, contested, and culturally dense.
These works were selected for ‘A Parliament of Lines’, an exhibition of fifteen Scottish artists who are currently working at an international level.
The exhibition originated at the City Art Centre in Edinburgh (5 May – 8 July 2012) and travelled to the Pier Arts Centre Orkney, Scotland (30 March – 8 June 2013) and RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, Australia (28 June – 17 August 2013).
The exhibition catalogue is funded by Creative Scotland and contains essays by Charles Esche, Director of the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands, Professor Murdo MacDonald, Professor of History of Scottish Art at the University of Dundee and Gavin Morrison, Director of IFF, Marseille.
