Sunday 16 December 2012

A different type of tree


Novar bounday beech #1 
Charcoal on Canson C à Grain paper
72 x 53cm

So, the eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that the above is not a Xmas tree.  Not at all. And that's quite a relief by this point perhaps (and Xmas still a week away... or more!). Neither is it anything to do with all the sad, sad news stories with us currently (suicides, mass murders of children...). It comes to something when watching "The Killing" is light relief from real life... heavy sigh.

No, the above is the work of Tansy Lee Moir (cue quote from her website) "an Edinburgh based artist with a passion for trees". I saw her work (two examples of it, in fact) in the huge Xmas exhibition that our county's main gallery, the Meffan in Forfar, holds every year around this time. There is always a competition element to the exhibition but, as happens with these things, I rarely agree with judges. My favourite pieces this year (and this is perhaps unwise as I know lots of artists around here and I'm not mentioning any of them today...) were a fabulous ceramic sculpture by Linda Masson (can't find her online at all... hence no link) and a mixed media kind of a picture by Gwen Black. And then there were Moir's charcoals... 

It was my friend who drew my attention to Moir's work first... and after close inspection we agreed that the pictures were a bit disturbing (I could see a pig snout breast in there somewhere) but also really good, quite compulsive-viewing and certainly memorable. "I bet they're the ones we'll remember", I said... and indeed that's certainly turning out to be the case. Interesting too that it was National Tree Week recently (I wouldn't have known but there were lots of radio programmes about trees etc.) and because of one of these programmes I ended up posting my tree poem/postcard to someone last week too (that poem's been online here and, for 2009's IPYPIASM*, here). And yes, I will get to this year's IPYPIASM but it might well be the end of the month (others are busy, busy, busy over here).


*International Put Your Poem In A Shop Month, of course!

12 comments:

The Solitary Walker said...

Mmm, yes — I see a pig's snout breast, a hand, a baby's face, a headless, armless figure with the other arm raised, a bandaged leg and a sticky-out pelvis, and ET in there for starters. I see these much more clearly than the tree! Which is probably how it should be. Trees have been artistically done to death. But Tansy deconstructs and reconstructs the tree in an original way.

Rachel Fox said...

Other viewers have said there aren't enough holes for a snout... or something... but you see what I mean.

I like your comment on the pictures... more eloquent than my thoughts! And the thing with these charcoals is... the more I look at them the more beauty I see in them.

x

The Solitary Walker said...

I now think it looks more like a curled hand or a doughnut! I can't really comment on the average number of holes in a snout. The whole concept sounds vaguely repulsive.

Rachel Fox said...

Yes, now I see a doughnut! There's something a bit inkblot going on... and it's best we don't dwell on what our visions say about us!
x

Eryl said...

I like that a lot, and will have to go and find more of her work now. The pig snout looks more like the end of a penis to me, and the hand looks like it's up a skirt, yet the whole thing does look like a tree. Marvellous.

Rachel Fox said...

There's lots of pictures and info on her website, Eryl, and she has a facebook page to like too. I'll send you that via fb.
x

Domestic Oub said...

I'm seeing a dancing naked woman... (and as for the charcoal drawing... ho, ho.)

Rachel Fox said...

Ho ho indeed. Nice to see you D'Oub!
x

Domestic Oub said...

(My evil overloards let me have of a few minutes compassionate leave!)

Rachel Fox said...

I've seen those overlords on your blog before... they're very cute.
x

Titus said...

Stunning! It's definitely tree, but I could see an woman amputee as well. They are disturbing; very intense work. Visceral trees somehow.

Rachel Fox said...

Glad you all appreciate them - I think it is really interesting work. I think I read on her FB page that the gallery will be putting on a solo show of hers in 2014. Just a while to wait then!
x