A new exhibition at Dundee University’s Cooper Gallery has been inspired partly by lambing on the Isle of Lewis.
Chimera is the work of two Turner Prize-nominated artists, Lucy Skaer and Rosalind Nashashibi, who met in Glasgow in 1997 when they occupied adjoining studios.
Since then they have pursued their own successful careers that have seen their work displayed around the world, while occasionally coming together to collaborate as Nashashibi/Skaer.
A sculptor and a painter
Lucy remembers the pair quickly became mates, but have found common ground in their differing styles. Lucy as a sculptor and Rosalind in painting, though they each use a variety of media – even though the latter is now based in London, while the former has moved to the Hebridean island.
“We are friends and interested in each other’s practices,” Lucy says.
“Our mutual interest and openness to each other’s way of thinking and working has kept our collaboration alive. We are often in agreement and willing to push the works in new directions.”
Three video works
For this show at Duncan of Jordanstone School of Art and Design, Nashashibi/Skaer present a mix of bronze and stone sculpture, painting and prints, though at its heart are three related, contemplative video works.
The more recent pair, 2019’s Lamb and Bear, filmed two years later, are based on footage shot on Lewis, where Lucy has lived since she bought a former village meeting house in 2008 that took six years to renovate.
All three films use photographs and other images with music. Our Magnolia from 2019 differs in that its starting point was a piece by Second World War painter Paul Nash, Flight of the Magnolia, using flowers to represent a threatened invasion from the air.
What unites the trio of films is their exploration of different elements coming together to make strange unions or entirely new concepts.
The show’s title, Lucy explains, comes from the fire-breathing creature of Greek mythology that was part-lion, part-goat, its name now used to refer to anything strange made of seemingly impossible ingredients.
“A chimera is two creatures in one or an idea composed of incongruous parts,” she says.
The drama of lambing
“The films are all to do with transformation or metamorphosis. We were interested in the drama of the lambing and its seasonality. I think we were both intuitively interested in its simplicity and its narrative and how we could respond to that on film and through sound.
“It seemed to make sense to respond again to it as lambing happens yearly.
“The pandemic changed the look and feel of the work. We had planned to travel to Canada for a show and residency, instead we brought the image and idea of a bear home and the film became about transformation.”
Musical event
While Lamb is shown downstairs with its original soundtrack by composer Bill Carslake and singer Olivia Ray, on the first floor Bear and Our Magnolia are run silently.
Among events connected to Chimera, on October 20 the Cooper presents Levitating Tongues, a live vocal accompaniment to the former by experimental, Scottish-based composers Ceylan Hay and Shiori Usui.
“Levitating Tongues will unleash your inner mythological beast,” the gallery promises.
Chimera runs at the Cooper Gallery, Dundee, until December 10.
Conversation