Saturday lunchtime in January, and on a plinth on the City Art Centre’s third floor, two incense sticks sit side by side. As a small crowd circle close, the first stick is lit. The scent it emits is drawn from ‘the first forest’, 385 million years ago at the dawn of civilisation, in what would become Cairo in New York State. Once this first stick is burnt out, a second is lit, releasing a more recent odourthat comes from ‘the last forest’, deep in the Amazon Rainforest. As the scents of Paterson’s work intermingle in the air, they create a sensory cocktail that draws across the centuries to infuse the air that we breathe today.
This little ritual is To Burn, Forest, Fire (2021), Katie Paterson’s contribution to the City Art Centre’s group show that gets back to nature to explore the human relationship with the natural environment. With the show’s mix of photography, painting, sculpture and installation nestling side by side, such cross fertilisation of approach itself creates a world hermetically sealed off from any further disruptions.
Beside Paterson’s plinth, a row of hanging lamp like structures make up Naomi Mcintosh’s piece, Quiet Garden (2021). These intricately woven beech wood constructions sit well next to the ashes of Paterson’s work, so one almost wishes there were a naturally woven bean bag or two one could sprawl on to enjoy a fully immersive experience alongside what look like five little creatures on a shelf that make up Lost Song (2021), which are actually ruffled visual representations of bird song created through data.
To Burn, Forest, Fire is the sort of thing you might expect to find after dark in the room beside it, where Hanna Tuulikki’s installation, Under Forest Cover/Metsänpeiton alla(2021) leads you into the deepest night. Using hologrammatic projections and sound, Tuulikki conjures up an eerie landscape full of stories, secrets and spectral imaginings.
The images of tree trunks that make up Dalziel + Scullion’s Unknown Pines (2007) may give a sense of order, but these close ups reveal a much wilder individualism, just as the greenery of Andy Goldsworthy’s survives snow and shadows. There is a monumental quality to I can’t get no (2005), in which Anya Gallaccio places two holly twigs side by side, seemingly in stasis. Andrew Mackenzie’s landscapes, meanwhile, are shown as if under some infrared spy camera that shows off the human disruptions like some otherwise invisible forcefield that restricts access.
With the perils of climate change a very hot topic just now, the double-edged sword of the show’s title points to a wide-open space where the seeds for reconstructing the natural world are sewn.
City Art Centre, Edinburgh until 25 February
Scottish Art News, February 2024
ends
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