Seeker
Seeker
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The exhibition takes its title and inspiration from the song of the same name which was written and performed by the Kinks. As the singer ponders, “This time tomorrow, where will we be?” the listener is invited to consider the seemingly conflicting emotions that being on the road can bring. In this body of work, Andrew Sutherland imagines possible answers to this question, expressed through oil and mixed media on paper and canvas. The artist imagines fantastical landscapes that transport the viewer into an escape that occupies both the past and future; these landscapes feel both unknown and familiar, as though we are discovering their wonders for the very first time and yet revisiting them with a firm knowledge of their paths, fishing spots, and hiking trails. These utopian scenes, often inspired by vintage books and magazines, capture the sense of an exploration that treasures unfathomable natural beauty, the joy of unknown territories, and respect for the pristine and untouched.
The nostalgia of Sutherland’s work is delicately counterbalanced by the almost futuristic quality of the subject matter; giant cacti dwarf explorers who move through the landscape, soaring mountains which give a sense of being somewhere in Asia without the viewer being able to pinpoint the exact place, and caves on a magnificent scale which seem to have been carved by waves larger than any that could be found on earth. Indeed, it is in this careful blurring between past and future, that the artist cleverly suggests that this time tomorrow, we may find a way to recover earthly landscapes that have been lost, or that our extra-terrestrial exploration will finally lead us to new worlds yet to be discovered.
These dual concepts of future exploration and nostalgic musings create the framework through which Sutherland reimagines a more hopeful future that is very different from the future we are currently faced with, in which natural splendour is second to profit; where adventurous spirits can still interact with a natural world unspoiled by progress and our eagerness to learn is shaped rather by our environment than our personal desires. With the current and ongoing global pandemic, Sutherland’s works provide us with the welcomed opportunity to be transported elsewhere; to forget where we are and wonder where we may find ourselves tomorrow.
words by Jessica Bosworth Smith