An Linne

J O N

S C H U E L E R

TAISBEANAIDHEAN / EXHIBITIONS 27/5 – 24/6 SABHAL MÒR OSTAIG

AN LINNE: Jon Schueler obraichean ann an ola & air pàipear / oils & works on paper

& AN LINNE: Sgoilearachd Jon Schueler / Jon Schueler Scholarship Artists (2013-2015) Takeshi Shikama / Helmut Lemke / Oliver Mezger

1973, Jon Schueler anns an stiĂšideo, Malaig. Dealbh-chamara: Magda Salvesen.

1973, Jon Schueler in his studio in Mallaig, Scotland. Photo: Magda Salvesen.

Ro-ràdh

Foreward

Tha e na thoileachadh mòr do Shabhal Mòr Ostaig gu bheil a’ Cho-labhairt agus Taisbeanadh Sònraichte, An Linne, gan cumail an seo, far a bheil obair, beatha is dìleab an sàr neach-ealain chliùitich, Jon Schueler, gan comharrachadh, ceud bliadhna bhon a rugadh e.

Sabhal Mòr Ostaig is delighted to be the host for this special Centenary Year Symposium and Exhibition, An Linne, celebrating the work, life and legacy of the internationally renowned artist, Jon Schueler.

Tha e iomchaidh gu bheilear a’ cumail an tachartais seo air cladach na Linne Slèitich, àite a tha a’ riochdachadh lèirsinn chudromach agus obair chumhachdach an neach-ealain.

Bhon a chaidh a stèidheachadh ann an 1973, tha Sabhal Mòr Ostaig air cuideam a chur air luach nan ealain agus luchdealain na leasachadh nas fharsainge mar ionad foghlaim agus na chuid obrach eadar-nàiseanta mar Ionad Nàiseanta Cànan, Cultar is Ealain na Gàidhlig.

Bha e a-riamh fa-near dhuinn gun cuireadh sinn ris an amas sin, tron phrògram againn Luchd-ealain air Mhuinntireas agus na prògraman Creative Futures ann an Litreachas, Na h-Ealain Lèirsinneach agus Dràma, is sinn a’ daingneachadh gu bheil na h-ealain agus luchd-ealain ann an teis-meadhan beatha chultarail an t-Sabhail Mhòir.

Mar thoradh air sin, tha e air a bhith na thoileachas agus na urram mòr dhuinn, anns na ceithir bliadhna ron tachartas seo, gun robh sinn a’ lìbhrigeadh a’ phrògraim eadarnàiseanta air mhuinntireas, Neach-ealain Jon Schueler, ann an com-pàirteachas le agus le taic Urras Jon Schueler. ’S e dìleab bheò, iomchaidh, is cho-aimsireil a bha seo airson na ceanglaichean a bh’ aig Jon Schueler ris na sgìrean seo a chomharrachadh agus tha cothroman air a bhith na cois airson sàr luchd-ealain eadar-nàiseanta a thàladh don àite shònraichte seo airson obair ealain a thoirt gu buil.

Tha e a’ toirt toileachas mòr dhomh fàilte mhòr a chur oirbh do cho-labhairt a bhios an dà chuid brosnachail agus taitneach far am faic sibh taghadh math de dh’obair an neach-ealain a tha ga taisbeanadh an seo fo iarmailt a bhios a’ sìor-atharrachadh is far an cluinn sibh tràghadh is sruthadh Linne Jon Schueler.

Dr Donaidh Rothach Stiùiriche Leasachaidh, Maoineachaidh is nan Ealain

It seems particularly appropriate that this event should be taking place on the shoreline of the Sound of Sleat, an environment so synonymous with the artist’s profound vision and his powerful and engaging work.

Since its inception in 1973, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig has placed great value and significance on the important informing role played by the arts and artists in the wider holistic development of Sabhal Mòr Ostaig as an important educational institution and, furthermore, in its internationally recognised role as the National Centre for the Gaelic Language, Culture and the Arts.

Through Sabhal Mòr Ostaig ’s long running Artists in Residence programme and the Creative Futures Artist’s Residency Programmes, in Literature, Music, Visual Arts and Drama, we have sought to give the fullest expression to that holistic aim, ensuring that the arts and artists were placed at the very heart of Sabhal Mòr’ s cultural life.

As part of that, it has also been a great pleasure and a privilege in the 4 years leading up to this event, to have been the host for the international Jon Schueler Artist in Residence Programme, presented in partnership and with the kind support of the Jon Schueler Trust. This has been a very appropriate, contemporary and living legacy of Jon Schueler’s strong links with this area and has enabled some wonderful artists from across the international community to come an make work here in this special place.

It is with greatest of pleasure that I welcome you all here for what I feel sure will be a stimulating and compelling symposium and to view and enjoy a wonderful selection of the artist’s work presented here under the ever changing skies and the murmuring ebb and flow of An Linne, Schueler’s Sound.

Dr Donnie Munro Director of Development, Fundraising and the Arts

1970, Jon Schueler anns an stiĂšideo, Romasaig, Malaig. Dealbh-chamara: Magda Salvesen.

1970, Jon Schueler in his studio, Romasaig, Mallaig. Photo: Magda Salvesen.

INFLECTED FRAGMENTS OF COLOUR Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, May – June 2016

We have here oil paintings, watercolours and charcoal sketches by Jon Schueler which were all completed between 1969 and 1986 in the studio at Mallaig Bheag. The paintings, for the most part, are remarkably homogeneous. Although Schueler is known primarily for his mighty and vigorous, abstracted landscapes, we find in the paintings selected for exhibition at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, a subtle and sensitive intelligence. We find ourselves, as audience, disorientated in the presence of these paintings because we are initially unable to relate them either to Schueler’s passionate and articulate autobiographical sketch, The Sound of Sleat (1999) nor to the ‘Sturm und Drang’ associations of his sea and skyscapes particularly from the late 1950s and early 60s after his first visit to Mallaig in 1957: we are confounded because Schueler’s distinctive, grandiloquent rhetoric is absent from these works.1 What do we find when we examine the works assembled here? The first reaction, as suggested above, might be a sense of the ‘absence’ (of gestural rhetoric) and yet I am not sure that the word to describe an initial reaction should not have been ‘presence’. This ambiguity is palpable as we view the works – at first it may feel like absence but it quite quickly becomes its opposite. We are aware of looking as activity: not as passive reception. We look into what is here with a searching gaze and gradually - ‘gradually’, because the measure of time is important - shape begins to emerge from these pale, enigmatic surfaces. What is only surface becomes depth and distance, shadow, nuance, form. We begin to see more and more the elements of composition and balance created by echoes of highlight here and shadowed relief there. When we look into a painting like The Search: Light Leaving (1981) we leave behind notions of perspective and focus on cloud forms themselves as folding or unfolding entities travelling up and down their expansive contours, entering or exiting apparently cavernous depths.

One of the most interesting points about this kind of effect is made by Schueler himself in interview with Kenneth Dingwall in 1999:

There are various things I’m doing. I’ll just take a simple thing that’s not simple, but that’s the pushing of the brush, I just narrow it down to that point. And okay, the very first thing that can happen is that if there’s a color and then I load my brush and push the brush, say, across this wet color or dry color, it’s going to be different every time. And one of

the things that happens is I can push the brush and then lift it and that brings up some of the color that I’ve been putting on, and allows some of the color underneath to come through, and by the same token I can create an unevenness.

Now, that unevenness is like that constant pulse that I think that I see in Nature. Whenever I look at a surface as though, let’s just say it’s a white wall, if I look long enough, it becomes more and more active. It’s that activity that I’m recreating in my actual stance in regard to the painting.2 So, when we look at the works in the exhibition we become aware of that ‘pulse’ that he mentions here, and the more we look, the more we become aware of the life that Schueler injected into his paintings. The act of looking, the participation of the spectator is an absolutely vital part of this process.

Some of the most radical scholarship in recent times – though more often in relation to literary theory than art history – has been the development of reception theory by literary theorists Stanley Fish, Wolfgang Iser and Hans Robert Jauss and then, more recently still, in the field of Cultural Studies particularly in the writings of Mieke Bal. Jauss laid stress on the importance of literary history as an integral part of the meaning of the literary text when he wrote: “A literary work is not an object that stands by itself and that offers the same view to each reader in each period. It is not a monument that monologically reveals its timeless essence. It is much more like an orchestration that strikes ever new resonances among its readers and that frees the text from the material of the words and brings it to a contemporary existence.”3 The concepts of ‘reading community’, ‘horizon of expectation’, ‘intertextuality’ and ‘dissemination’ have helped to develop a dialogical relationship between the work, its history and its status.

This has been important in distancing art history from a history of connoisseurship. Norman Bryson summarises the limitations of an art history which ignores the experience of the spectator: “The way viewers experienced their encounter with works of art, and the way that social and cultural forces directed their response, had been generally neglected, or (worse still) consigned to the history of ‘taste’.”4 This history of the reception of his work is very much an element which has been neglected in relation to Schueler.

Schueler, himself, was far ahead of his time in this respect:

I consider my own life most valid, most meaningful, most profound, at those times when I really open myself to a person or an event, shedding briefly the shackles of fear, caution, preconception, tight rationale. I understand best movement and change, for these seem to characterise reality far more than their opposites. That which is static is only seemingly so, and that sense of security based on the unchanging can only be false. Even a picture alters in time both physically as it fights the elements and spiritually as it acquires new dimensions and meaning in the minds of succeeding generations.5 Schueler’s emphasis on “the minds of succeeding generations” at the conclusion to this passage reveals his faith in meaning as something generated in the relationship between the work and its audience rather than some kind of transcendental value within the work itself. We might regard the archetypal painting of Abstract Expressionism, especially in Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Willem De Kooning, Barnett Newman, Clyfford Still, and also in much of Schueler, as above all ‘first person narrative’. That is, by virtue of its emphatic inscription of the hand of the artist telling the dramatic, often frenzied struggle of the stages undergone in order for the work to find a resolution. A glance at reviewers’ comments on Schueler’s exhibitions at different times reinforces the suspicion that readings would typically focus on what we are referring to as ‘first person narrative’:

… waves of color surging across gigantic canvases (1954). … they offer an engulfing universe; they invite an unbounded spiritual plunge (1954). … drenching the heavens with vivid stanzas of dramatic color and sequences of form extrapolated from light and energy (1960). … the paintings are bardic, intensely charged with eloquence and passion. In each work, the brushwork is the heartbeat (1975). … what he in fact reveals is the heroic quality of the struggle itself (1983).6 These responses are not appropriate to the works that surround us at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig. From the quiet,

predominantly grey oils to the muted and tonally convergent watercolours, it is certainly not ‘first person narrative’ that is set before us here. So what kind of narrative are we faced with?

Much of the debate surrounding Schueler’s place within the history of twentieth century art consigns him to a rather uncomfortable seat astraddle nature and abstraction.

Rather than wrestling anew with this well-worn binary in regard to Schueler, we might more fruitfully invoke the spirit of Deleuze: “It (the state in which subject and object meet) is not exactly a point but a place, a position, a site, a ‘linear focus,’ a line emanating from lines. To the degree it represents variation or inflection, it can be called point of view. Such is the basis of perspectivism, which does not mean a dependence in respect to a pre-given or defined subject; to the contrary, a subject will be what comes to the point of view, or rather what remains in the point of view.”7 It is difficult to think of another collection of Schueler’s paintings which so enthrallingly posit a demand for the spectator to be entangled within the narrative as a variable “you” who is both dependent on and constitutive of the “I” of the artist. If we look at Too Late For Blues (1983) we find after looking, if we allow for an encounter to take place, that a sense of emergent form will replace vagueness – the painting becomes alive as we engage with it. The meaning or significance of the painting, in other words, is deictic: it is constructed only in the moment when the spectator engages with it.8 When we think of the kind of response that Schueler was hoping for we find him remarkably certain in his views on language. He did not think there was any kind of equivalence between the verbal and the visual. He wrote most engagingly about the process of painting and yet adamantly insisted, time and again, that the language of paint could not be translated in any sense into written form. “I suspect he (the artist) is best off if he ignores or bypasses his philosophic speculations, because he’s brought into a realm where he’s thinking about it, which is verbal . . . it’s verbal and not visual. As the potential of joy, the potential of profundity for a painter is the fact of this substance - this substance which is paint, becomes the substance which is thought. That is the thought. And it is very different than thinking with words somehow.”9

If we move sideways, for a moment, to another second wave Abstract Expressionist with strong Scottish connections to Agnes Martin and her equally enigmatic paintings - we find Martin, herself, echoing the sentiments above: “it is quite commonly thought that the intellect is responsible for everything that is made and done. It is commonly thought that everything that is can be put into words. But there is a wide range of emotional response that we make that cannot be put into words. We are so used to making these emotional responses that we are not consciously aware of them till they are represented in art work.”10 The “emotional response” that Martin suggests is perhaps close to what creates the “potential for joy” for Schueler: it is certainly connected to the notion of encounter, of reaction to the physical world about us.

the medium itself as well as his emphasis upon movement and change is remarkably close to Deluze and Guattari on “Percept, Affect, and Concept”: “There are certainly two signs of the genius of great painters, as well as of their humility: the respect, almost dread, with which they approach and enter into color; and the care with which they join together the sections or planes on which the type of depth depends.”13 © Lindsay Blair, 2016.

So when we return to the paintings before us and look into the depths of a lightening sky it may help to think of Schueler’s oft repeated assertion of the influence of Turner upon his work, or the influence of jazz on his method of working but, perhaps, considering the paintings before us – Romasaig Grey (1983), for example, or Grey Sky Shadow 111 (1974), or Snow Cloud: Dark on the Sea (1974) - it might be as well to focus on a particular fascination of his, a fascination with the colour grey, and to return to Schueler himself on these enigmatic works from Romasaig:

When I got over to Scotland, it’s was at that point that I started painting again to bring up the thread of the narrative - it’s like a long, long novel or a long, long book - so the idea of greyness was then to allow color to move into it, but before that, and also in juxtaposition to that, I did a lot of paintings which were pure grey sometimes with just a touch of color - sometimes with a little more, sometime with less. But basically the challenge was to paint the grey and to find out what color meant because of that, because of what it did to my vision. And it was hard, it required a very strong discipline on my part because I really love color, I luxuriate in it.11

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The restraint that Schueler alludes to forces the spectator to pause, to question the horizon of expectation that he would typically bring to an exhibition of Schueler’s works, and to look again at what is before him – to really look this time “shedding briefly the shackles of fear, caution, preconception.”12 The respect that Schueler reveals for

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11 12 13

Jon Schueler, The Sound of Sleat, ed. Magda Salvesen and Diane Coisneau (New York: Picador), 1999.

Jon Schueler, Interview with Kenneth Dingwall, 1981, 9-10.

Hans Robert Jauss, “Literary History as a Challenge to Literary Theory”, The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2001 1552-3.

Norman Bryson, “Introduction: Art and Intersubjectivity”, Looking In, The Art of Viewing (London: Routledge), 6.

Jon Schueler, “A Statement by the Artist”, Jon Schueler, Stable Gallery, New York, 1954.

Carlyle Burrows, “Modern Impressions” New York Herald Tribune, Feb. 28, 1954; Sam Feinstein, “Jon Schueler: A Vision of Nature”, Art Digest, March 1, 1954; S.T. “Jon Schueler”, Arts Magazine Vol. 34, Feb. 1960; Al Brunelle, Art in America, Oct. 1975; Jay Parini, Arts, April 1983.

Gilles Deleuze, “The Folds in the Soul”, The Fold: Leibniz and the Baroque (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993).

See Meike Bal, “Second Person Narrative”, Looking In, 232.

Jon Schueler, Interview with Catherine Murray, questions asked by Magda Salvesen and Linda Tarnay, New York, February 10, 1985.

Agnes Martin “Beauty is the Mystery of Life”, Agnes Martin (London: Tate Publishing), 158.

Interview with Murray, 1985: 22.

Schueler,”A Statement by the Artist”, 1954.

Deleuze, G. and Guattari, F. “Percept, Affect, and Concept”, The Continental Aesthetics Reader, ed. Clive Caseaux (London: Routledge, 2011), 628.

recommend getting a higher resolution version of this this image print size is 3cm x 5cm with a pixel size of 600 x 403px.

1966, Jon Schueler anns an stiĂšideo, 901 Broadway, New York. Dealbh-chamara: Robert Bernhard.

1966, Jon Schueler in his studio at 901 Broadway, New York City. Photo: Robert Bernhard.

G A I L E A R A I D

G A L L E R Y

Grey Sky Shadow, III 1974, 29” x 32”, Ola air canabhas / Oil on canvas (o/c 404)

Snow Cloud: Dark on the Sea 1974, 44” x 48”, Ola air canabhas / Oil on canvas (o/c 556)

[Sound Memory] 1974, 36” x 32”, Ola air canabhas / Oil on canvas (o/c 481)

Separate Ways: Storm and Sea 1975, 48” x 44”, Ola air canabhas / Oil on canvas (o/c 608)

Red Sky, II 1980, 30” x 24”, Ola air canabhas / Oil on canvas (o/c 1088)

Grey Silver Blues 1981-83, 28” x 24”, Ola air canabhas / Oil on canvas (o/c 1208)

The Search, Light Leaving 1981, 36” x 30”, Ola air canabhas / Oil on canvas (o/c 1151)

Too Late for Blues 1983, 44” x 36”, Ola air canabhas / Oil on canvas (o/c 1351)

Grey in Light 1983, 44” x 36”, Ola air canabhas / Oil on canvas (o/c 1349)

[Landscape, 7] 1971, 8.5” x 11”, Gual – fhiodh air pàipear / Charcoal on Paper (dr.71-7)

[Abstract, I] 1973, 31” x 23”, Gual – fhiodh air pàipear / Charcoal on Paper (dr.73-8)

[Shadow and Light] 1969, 22.5” x 28”, Dath-uisge air pàipear / Watercolour on paper (w/c 69-21 NFS)

Untitled 1970, 17.8” x 23”, Dath-uisge air pàipear / Watercolour on paper (w/c 70-58 NFS)

Untitled 1973, 14.25” x 21.25”, Dath-uisge air pàipear / Watercolour on paper (w/c 147)

Untitled 1973, 14.25” x 22.25”, Dath-uisge air pàipear / Watercolour on paper (w/c 149)

Untitled 1973, 7” x 6”, Dath-uisge air pàipear / Watercolour on paper (w/c 189)

Untitled 1974, 9.75” x 13”, Dath-uisge air pàipear / Watercolour on paper (w/c 234)

Untitled 1985, 9.25” x 13.5”, Dath-uisge agus graifit air pàipear / Watercolour and graphite on paper (w/c 577)

Untitled 1986, 2.75” x 10”, Dath-uisge agus graifit air pàipear / Watercolour and graphite on paper (w/c 585)

Untitled 1986, 3.75” x 9.25”, Dath-uisge agus graifit air pàipear / Watercolour and graphite on paper (w/c 587)

... I can see the drama of nature...

The Sound of Sleat, I, 1976, 30” x 40” (o/c 556) © Jon Schueler Estate

1957, Jon Schueler ann am Malaig, Alba. Dealbh-chamara: Joellen Hall Schueler.

1957, Jon Schueler in Mallaig, Scotland. Photo: Joellen Hall Schueler.

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Thathar a’ tathann Sgoilearachd Jon Schueler gach bliadhna do neach-ealain eadar-nàiseanta airson trì mìosan a chur seachad ag obair ann an àrainneachd shònraichte Sabhal Mòr Ostaig agus ’s e Takeshi Shikama à Iapan a’ chiad neach a fhuair e ann an 2013. B’ e an neach-ealain claistinneach Helmut Lemke às a’ Ghearmailt a thàinig às a dhèidh-san ann an 2014 agus an neach-ealain film, Oliver Mezger, ann an 2015. ’S e com-pàirteachas eadar-nàiseanta, sònraichte a th’ ann an Sgoilearachd Jon Schueler eadar Sabhal Mòr Ostaig OGE agus Urras Jon Schueler, le taic bho Acadamaidh Rìoghail na h-Alba, agus tha e a’ cur ris a’ phrògram air mhuinntireas a tha mu thràth air a ruith le SMO, le taic bho Alba Chruthachail, airson sgrìobhadairean Gàidhlig, luchd-ciùil, luchd-ealain lèirsinne agus luchd-dràma Gàidhlig. Bidh an sgoilearachd a’ ruith gu 2016. Chaidh a stèidheachadh gus comharra a dhèanamh agus cuimhne a chumail air beatha, obair agus buaidh an neach-ealain chliùitich, eadar-nàiseanta agus a’ pheantair eascruthaich, Jon Schueler, agus airson aithne a thoirt dhan dlùth-chàirdeas a bh’ aige le cruth-tìre agus àrainneachd na Linne Slèitich.

Faodaidh luchd-ealain eadar-nàiseanta, Albannach no bhon RA – a tha ag obair aig an ìre as àirde ann am meadhan lèirsinne agus aig a bheil ùidh shònraichte ann an cruth na tìre agus an àrainneachd – cur a-steach airson na Sgoilearachd. Leis an Sgoilearachd, bidh cothrom aig luchd-ealain lèirsinne a bhith ag obair ann an Stiùidio nan Ealain Lèirsinne againn fad grunn mhìosan as t-samhradh is as t-fhoghar, ann an àite far am bi iad air an cuairteachadh le daoine cruthachail eile a tha ri obair-ealain de dhiofar sheòrsaichean agus far am bi iad air am bogadh ann an cultar brìoghmhor na sgìre.

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The John Schueler Scholarship residency is offered each year to an international visual artist to spend 3 months working in the unique environment of Sabhal Mòr Ostaig and began in 2013 with Japanese artist Takeshi Shikama, followed by German sound-artist Helmut Lemke in 2014 and Scottish-based film artist Oliver Mezger in 2015. The scholarship is a unique international partnership between Sabhal Mòr Ostaig UHI and the Jon Schueler Charitable Trust, with support from the Royal Scottish Academy and complements the Artists’ Residency Programme at SMO, supported by Creative Scotland, for Gaelic writers, musicians, visual artists and Gaelic drama. The scholarship programme will run until the end of 2016. It has been established to celebrate and remember the life, work and artistic influence of internationally renowned artist and abstract expressionist painter, Jon Schueler, and in recognition of his very special relationship with the landscape and environment of the Sound of Sleat.

The Scholarship is open to international, Scottish and UK artists working to the highest level of professional practise in a visual medium and with a particular interest in landscape and the environment. The Scholarship enables a visual artist to base themselves in the Summer/Autumn months in the Visual Arts Studio, housed within the Fàs Centre for the Creative and Cultural Industries at SMO, in a culturally rich and multi-disciplinary arts environment.

Takeshi Shikama Sgoilear Jon Schueler 2013

Rugadh:1948 ann an Tokyo, an t-Seapan.

Ann an 2002 theann Takeshi Shikama ri dealbhadaireachd an dèidh dreuchd a bhith aige ri dealbhadh. Bha e air a tharraing gu coilltean mar chuspair don chamara mhòr aige. ‘B’ e “an saoghal gun fhaicinn” a bh’ ann dheth, am falach air cùlaibh an t-saoghal a chìthear a dh’fheuch e ri ghlacadh. Chaidh a chiad chruinneachadh de dhealbhadaireachd fhoillseachadh ann an 2007 mar Mori no Hida—Silent Respiration of Forests. Às an t-saothair seo, dh’èirich oidhirp mhòr a bheatha.

Ann an 2008, chruthaich e sreath ùr, UtsuroiEvanescence, ann an ceithir pàirtean: Coille, Raon, Lotus, Gàrradh. Ann an 2009, chuir e an còigeamh pàirt dheth, Dreach-tìre. A’ bhliadhna na dhèidh, ann an 2010, fhad ‘s a bha e ag obair air sreath Evanescence, thòisich e ag obair le pàipear Seapanach Gampi air a dhèanamh le làimh airson a’ chlò phlatinum Palladium aige. Agus cliù air a-nis mar fhear den luchd-ealain as fheàrr anns an t-saoghal ag obair ann an dealbhadaireachd platinum palladium an-diugh, tha saothair aig Shikama ann an caochladh chruinneachaidhean poblach, san Fhraing, san t-Seapan, sna Stàitean agus ann an àiteachan eile.

Born:1948 in Tokyo, Japan.

In 2002 Takeshi Shikama turned to photography after a career in the field of design. He was drawn to forests as the subject for his large format camera. It was the “invisible world”, hidden behind the “visible” that he worked to capture. His first photo collection was published in 2007 as Mori no Hida—Silent Respiration of Forests. This project became the launch of a lifetime endeavor.

In 2008, he created a new series, UtsuroiEvanescence, consisting of four parts: Forest, Field, Lotus, and Garden. In 2009, he added the fifth part, Landscape. The following year, in 2010, while working on the Evanescenc seriese, he started working with Japanese hand made Gampi paper for his platinum Palladium printing. Now recognised as one of the world’s leading artists working in platinum palladium photography today, Shikama has work in numerous public collections including France, Japan and the USA.

www.shikamaphoto.com

Chaidh mo tharraing, fad iomadh bliadhna, don choille, is mi a’ feuchainn ris an àile, an t-adhar, a ghlacadh, a thuilleadh air na chunnaic mi.

Ghabh mi iongantas dheth an uair sin - nan rachainn a dh’àite eile, a mhòr-thìr eile, am biodh m’ obair-sa eadar-dhealaichte?

Mean air mhean, tha an cruth-tìre agam fhìn a’ tighinn am follais às an àite. ’S e seo a’ chiad eòlas a th’ air a bhith agam a’ tadhal air eilean, an seo san Eilean Sgitheanach.

Bha mi den bheachd an toiseach gun robh an cruth-tìre cumhachdach agus fad beagan sheachdainean bha e gam bhàthadh.

Thug e greis dhomh. An iarmailt, agus na sgòthan mòra sin, a bha gu tur ùr dhomh.

Mean air mhean, a’ coimhead tron fheur a bha a’ ghaoth a’ sèideadh, boillsgeadh, an solas, Thòisich mi air an fhuaim a chluinntinn, ceòl, òrain Ghàidhlig ris an robh mi ag èisteachd, agus a’ phìob.

B’ e seo mo mhiann.

Bu mhath leam gun cluinneadh an neach-coimhid an ceòl, a’ ghaoth, an t-adhar, tron dealbh.

Chan e ach an dàrna leth dem shaothair sa a th’ anns an obair chamara.

Bidh mi a’ cur seachad barrachd ùine a’ cur an deilbh air pàipear na chosgainn air dealbh a pheantadh no a tharraing.

Cha b’ e dìreach dealbh den t-solas a bha fa-near dhomh, bha mi airson an solas fhèin a chleachdadh airson na h-ìomhaighean a chruthachadh a chionn ‘s gun robh e cho eireachdail.

Cha robh e soirbh aig an toiseach, bha an t-sìde air leth caochlaideach.

Ach, mean air mhean, thòisich mi air brìgh nan siantan a thuigsinn.

Am Baile Meadhanach 8” x 6.5”, Clò-bhualadh platinum palladian air pàipear Gampi / Platinum palladian print on hand-made Gampi paper

For many years I had been drawn to the forest, trying to capture the air, the atmosphere, not only what I saw.

Then I became curious - if I went to another place, another continent, would my work be different?

Slowly a place becomes my landscape.

My first experience of visiting an island, is here in Skye.

At first I found the landscape very strong, very powerful and for a few weeks I was overwhelmed.

It took time. The sky, and such big clouds, I have never experienced.

Slowly, looking through the grasses moving in the wind, shining, the light, I started to hear the sound, music, Gaelic song I had been hearing, and pipes.

This is what I wanted.

I wanted the viewer to hear the music, the wind, the air, through a photograph.

To use the camera is less than half of my process. I spend more time making a print, as I would painting or drawing.

I didn’t just want to photograph the light, I wanted to use the very light itself to make the images because it was so beautiful.

To begin with it was not easy, the weather changed so much and so quickly. However, slowly I began to find an understanding of its essence.

Takeshi Shikama

Helmut Lemke Sgoilear Jon Schueler 2014

Neach-ealain Gearmailteach a tha ag obair ann am Breatainn agus a’ spèisealachadh ann an fuaim agus ealain shuidheachaidh. Tha Helmut air consairtean, taisbeanaidhean fuaime is ealain “shuidhichte” a chur air dòigh ann am iomadh àite is làrach fa leth is sònraichte bho thòisich e ag obair sna 1970an.

Bho tallachan-ciùil gu margaidhean a-muigh, eadar gailearaidhean is taighean-tasgaidh, bho thaighean-seinnse gu fèisean mòra eadarnàiseanta, tha daoine air obair a chluinntinn agus fhaicinn ann an iomadh ceàrnaidh den t-saoghal.Tha fuaim aig cridhe obair Helmut agus bidh e ag obair còmhla ri luchd-ealain fuaime eile, luchd-ealain lèirsinne, ailtirean, bàird, arc-eòlaichean, luchdealain cleasachd agus maoir-dhùthcha. Bidh Helmut ag obair le fuaimean a tha cumanta, fuaimean a tha follaiseach, agus fuaimean a dh’fheumas e a lorg agus bidh na fuaimean sin agus meadhanan is obair-ealain eile gan toirt còmhla ann an iomadh dòigh sna taisbeanaidhean aige. Mar a tha e fhèin ag ràdh, tha e daonnan ag èisteachd.

A German artist, now based in Britain, who specialises in sound and installation art.Lemke has developed site-specific concerts, performances and installations in a whole variety of sites and settings since he began his work in the 1970s. Lemke works with a variety of sounds, some common, some obvious, and others that are to be found and often combines them with other media and art-forms in his exhibitions. Venues that the artist has explored and utilised include: concert halls, outdoor markets, galleries, museums, the frozen sea off Greenland, function rooms of pubs and international festivals.

He has presented his work all over the globe, collaborating with other sound artists, musicians, dancers, scientists, visual artists, architects, poets, archaeologists, performance artists and wildlife rangers.

CÀNAN STREATHAN TUINN ÜBER DEN HÖRWERT 24 Luach Eile Fhuaimean 24 Bha mi air mo chuid uallachaidh a dhèanamh: rinn mi rannsachadh air dè th’ ann an Sabhal Mòr Ostaig agus na bhios daoine a’ dèanamh ann. Ach ’s ann dìreach air an dara latha a thuig mi ann an da-rìribh cho sònraichte ’s a tha ’n t-àite seo...

Fad trì mìosan bha mi air mo bhogadh ann an coimhearsnachd làn Ghàidheal dealasach, Luchd-rannsachaidh, Oileanaich… Daoine. ’S e an fhuaim ùr a th’ ann cànan na Gàidhlig a tha ga labhairt, ga teagasg, ga rannsachadh, agus ga meas an seo agus mìr sònraichte na lùib ’s e an cultar a bhios i a’ riochdachadh agus a tha i mar chuid dhìth.

Fad trì mìosan, chan e a-mhàin gun do dh’èist mi ris na lorg mo chluasan mar a rinn mi anns cha mhòr a h-uile gin de dh’obraichean “Über Den Hörwert –Luach Eile Fhuaimean” roimhe, ach, a bharrachd air sin, dh’iarr mi air muinntir na Gàidhlig a bhith mar Luchd-treòrachaidh dhomh agus ‘chunnaic’ mi a’Ghàidhlig mar fhuaim a bharrachd far a bheil agam ri bhith ag èisteachd/ a’ trusadh/ a’ nochdadh...

Bhruidhinn mi ri muinntir na Gàidhlig, is mi a’ cur dà cheist orra: An innis sibh dhomh rudeigin (ann an GÀIDHLIG) mu fhuaim, agus, càite san Eilean Sgitheanach am faighinn cothrom air èisteachd ris na dh’aithris thu dhomh an-dràsta?

Chuir na freagairtean a’ sireadh mi; air lorg na fuaim mun do bhruidhinn an luchd-treòrachaidh agam.

Thug mi freagairt air dà fhuaim an uair sin – air fuaim nam facal a thug dealbh air an fhuaim agus air an fhuaim air an deach dealbh a thoirt anns na faclan.

Tha mi air lìomhadh air uachdar.

Tha ionnsachadh mun àrainneachd seo dìreach air tòiseachadh agam agus dh’fhàg e mi ag iarraidh leantainn orm agus dol ann am barrachd doimhneachd gus dìreach beagan de na ceistean a thòisich mi a’ cur a fhreagairt.

Mhair a’ ghreis agam trì mìosan – ùine fhada do phròiseact sam bith ach ùine gu math goirid gus àrainneachd nam fuaimean air an do chuir mi eòlas a chur an cèill mar as iomachaidh.

fuaim(neachadh) – raineach | sound(ing) – bracken peansail air pàipear / pencil on paper, 2014

CÀNAN STREATHAN TUINN ÜBER DEN HÖRWERT 24 the Surplus Value of Sound no. 24 On arriving, I had done my preparations, researched what Sabhal Mòr Ostaig is and what people do there. But only on my second day did I really understand how special this place is …

For three months in Skye I was submerged in a community of passionate Gaelic speakers, Researcher, Students … People.

I was faced with a new sound: the Gaelic Language that is spoken, taught, researched and cherished here and I also learned of the culture it represents and is part of.

Helmut Lemke

For three months, I did not only listen where my ears took me as I did in most previous ‘‘Über Den Hörwert - Luach Eile Fhuaimean” projects, but also I asked Gaelic Speakers to be my guides and I ‘saw’ the Gaelic language as additional sound that requires my listening / collecting / sharing ...

I spoke to Gaelic Speakers, asking two questions: please will you tell me something (in GAELIC) about sound, and, where in the Isle of Skye do I have a chance to hear what you just described to me?

The answers sent me on a quest to find the sound my guides told me about.

I then responded to two soundsto the sound of the words that described the sound and to the sound that was described in these words.

I had scratched a surface.

Learning about this environment has just begun and left me with the wish to continue and dig deeper to answer just a few of the questions I started to ask.

My residency lasted for three months – a long time for any project but a very short time to find adequate sounding expressions for the complexity of the sounding environment that I encountered. www.klang-cluinn-sound.tumblr.com

Oliver Mezger Sgoilear Jon Schueler 2015

Neach-ealain Jon Schueler air Mhuinntearas aig Sabhal Mòr Ostaig 2015.

Tha Oliver na fhilmeadair. Tha ùidh aige ann am bàrdachd, ann an rosg agus ceòl nan Gàidheal agus bho thug e ceum a-mach à Sgoil-ealain Ghlaschu le Ceum Maighstir ann an Ealain Fhìnealta ann an 2006 tha e air sreath de shaothair a nochdas na cruthan seo a dhèanamh. Bhuannaich e Duais RSA Morton 2013/14, do luchd-ealain ag obair le lionsaichean ann an Alba, rud a chuir air chomas dha an t-saothair 16mm, ‘Air Sgàth’, fhilmeadh agus a chur an clò, an dèidh dà bhliadhna de dh’obair, de rannsachadh agus de bheachdachadh air an fhilm, ‘Caora Mòr’ bho 1966.

Mezger graduated from Glasgow School of Art with a Masters in Fine Art in 2006 has made a series of works that echo the cultural forms of Gaelic poetry, prose and music. He won the RSA Morton Award 2013/14, for artists working in a lens-based media in Scotland which enabled him to film and print the 16mm work, ‘Air Sgàth- For the sake of Margaret Tait’, the culmination of two years’ work, researching and responding to the 1966 film ‘Caora Mòr - The Big Sheep’.

www.ohvmezger.co.uk

Tha Oliver na neach-ealain film. Tha ùidh aige ann am bàrdachd, rosg agus ceòl Gàidhlig.

Nuair a thug e greis air muinntiris-ealain ann an Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, chaidh aige air a dhol an sàs ann am barrachd doimhneachd ann am freumhan nan tùsan aige. Ghabh e pàirt anns na cùrsaichean goirid Gàidhlihg. Agus anns an àrainneachd dhian seo, chaidh cnàmhan a’ chànain a dhèanamh aithnichte dha. Thàinig e a-steach air gum faca e a shlighe ionnsachaidh fhèin, an t-eòlas a bha e a’ cur air còmhradh agus an ceangal a bh’ aige ris a’ Ghàidhlig a’ ruith ann an co-shìneadh ris na cruthan a bha e a’ faicinn a’ ruith air ailltireachd an Eilein.

Tro ionnsachadh na Gàidhlig tha Oliver air eòlas fhaighinn air ruitheam, structar rosgrannan agus abairtean le an ìomhaighean à bàrdachd is piobaireachd. Tha e air air beagan tuigse fhaighinn air a’ Cheol Mhòr a tha cho bunailteach is suaicheanta dha na Gàidheil. Tro channtaireachd, tro ath-mhìneachadh air an ùrlar ann an ‘Crosanachd an Doill’, tha e air feuchainn ri taitneachd is tarraingeachd is cudrom is dìomhaireachd an nì iongantaich seo a tha na mheadhan air an cultar a chur an cèill a ghlacadh. San fhilm a rinn e: ‘foghar - noise, sound, sound, note, blow’ (2016) ’s e tha fa-near dha an dà chuid uirsgeulachd nam bàrd ùrachadh agus beachdachadh air an dlùth-dhàimh a th’ aige fhèin ris na Gàidheil agus ris an àrainneachd dham buin iad. Tha sin a’ toirt na h-earrainn seo de Chèol Mòr leis mar phàirt de Leadan a tha ri fhoillseachadh. Tha Ceòl Mòr den t-seòrsa seo na nàdar de choigreach, air aineol - mar a tha e fhèin cuideachd - anns an dòigh sa bheil e air a mheas na ath-riochdachadh: de ghairm na ‘Cuthaig’; de cheòl a tha a’ toirt taic do sheann dheas-ghnàth cràbhach a chaidh air dhìomhchuimhn’.

Tha Oliver ag amas air an dìomhanas smaoineachaidh agus gach faoin shamhla a tha an cois na piobaireachd ’s an tartain a ruagadh. ’S ann tro phrosbaig na Gàidhlig a bha a shùil ag amharc nuair a rinn e fhilm, a bhideo agus obair chlaistinneach. A’ tarraing air a’ chultar seo, tha e ag ath-dhealbh a chuid obrach, tha e air a toirt gu buil sa Ghàidhealtachd, tha e a’ toirt sùil ùr air an dìleab seo a thàinig sìos thugainn uile.

foghar – noise, sound, sound, note, blow DV le fuaim / DV with sound, 2016

Oliver is an artist film-maker. He has an ongoing interest in Gaelic poetry, prose and music.

As part of his residency at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Oliver was able to explore the deeper roots of his sources. He participated in the Gaelic Short Courses. And through this intensive environment was introduced to the framework of the language. It became apparent to him that he could parallel the manner of his own learning, speaking and and relationship to Scots Gaelic, through the constructions he observed in the contemporary architecture of Skye.

Oliver’s learning of Scots Gaelic has permitted him access to rhythms, sentence structure and pictorial phrases of bardic poetry and piping. He has begun to understand the inherent parochial uniqueness of ‘Ceol Mòr’, pibroch, or The Big Music of the Highland Bagpipes. Through his learning of ‘Canntaireachd’, re-presentation and re-interpretation of the Urlar, ground, of ‘Crosanachd an Doill’; which within piping repertoire is misstranslated as ‘The Blind Piper’s Obstinacy’; he has tried to capture the particular appeal, lure, importance and strangeness of this exquisite expression of the culture. His film ‘foghar – noise, sound, sound, note, blow’ – 2016, both looks to revive the mythopoetic and reflect on the indicative closeness of himself to the Gaels and their environment.

It includes this pibroch as part of an unfolding Litany. This type of pibroch becomes a ‘Strainsear’ to itself, like himself; in the way that it is reconsidered as a representation; both the call of the ‘Cuthag’, or Cuckoo, and the musical accompaniment to a lost religious ritual.

Oliver attempts to blow apart bland piping cliches and tartan-alia.

He reframes his film, video and audio practice with a Gaelic lens. And, re-imagines his work through this culture, worked out in the Gaeltacht, looking to cast light back on this shared inheritance. www.issuu.com: Oliver HV Mezger - Parallels

Oliver Mezger

BUIDHEACHAS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Taing do na leanas:

Sincere thanks to:

Magda Salvesen, Cùradair air Oighreachd Jon Schueler.

Magda Salvesen, Curator of the Jon Schueler Estate.

An t-urras The Jon Schueler Charitable Trust.

The Jon Schueler Charitable Trust.

Fionnlagh Fionnlasdan, Crannog Concept Ltd, West Highland Seafood, Cruises & Underwater Centre, An Gearasdan, mar phrìomh ghoistidh. www.crannog.net

Finlay Finlayson, Crannog Concept Ltd, West Highland seafood, cruises and Underwater Centre Fort William, as lead sponsor. www.crannog.net

Colaiste Mhoireibh, OGE.

Moray College, UHI.

Dr Lindsay Blair, Colaiste Mhoireibh OGE, neach-gairm a’ cho-labhairt agus co-chùradair air AN LINNE, Taisbeanadh Jon Schueler, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig. Aiste sa chatalog ‘Inflected Fragments of Colour’ © Lindsay Blair.

Dr Lindsay Blair, Moray College UHI, Conference Convenor and joint curator of An Linne, Jon Schueler Exhibition, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig. Catalogue essay ‘Inflected Fragments of Colour’ © Lindsay Blair.

An t-Ollamh Donaidh Rothach, Stiùiriche Leasachaidh, Maoineachaidh is nan Ealan.

Dr Donnie Munro, Director of Development, Fundraising and the Arts, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig.

Kath NicLeòid, Oifigear Leasachaidh Ealain, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, co-chùradair air AN LINNE, Taisbeanadh Jon Schueler agus cùradair Taisbeanadh Sgoilearachd Jon Schueler, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig.

Kath MacLeod, Arts Development Officer, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, joint curator of AN LINNE, Jon Schueler Exhibition and curator of the Jon Schueler Scholarship Exhibition, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig.

Luchd-ealain Sgoilearachd Jon Schueler: Takeshi Shikama, Helmut Lemke & Oliver Mezger.

The Jon Schueler Scholarship Artists: Takeshi Shikama, Helmut Lemke & Oliver Mezger.

Tha sinn an comain Lucilla Nobail à Pràban na Linne a mhaoinich a’ cuirm-òil aig fosgladh an taisbeanaidh.

Stèidhicheadh Pràban na Linne, “The Gaelic Whiskies”, an 1976 le Sir Iain Nobail, a chuir Sabhal Mòr Ostaig air bhonn.

‘Slàinte mhath a h-uile latha a chì ’s nach fhaic’.

Drinks reception for exhibition opening kindly sponsored

by Lucilla Noble of Pràban na Linne, “The Gaelic Whiskies”, established in 1976 by Sir Iain Noble, founder of Sabhal Mòr Ostaig. ‘Slàinte mhath a h-uile latha a chì ’s nach fhaic’.

Dealbhte le Cànan.

Design by Cànan.

Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, a chuir an co-labhairt is na taisbeanaidhean air dòigh. www.smo.uhi.ac.uk

Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, conference and exhibition organisers. www.smo.uhi.ac.uk

Foillsichte le Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, agus urras an Jon Schueler Charitable Trust, Alba.

Published by Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, and the Jon Schueler Charitable Trust, Scotland.

Copyright © Sabhal Mòr Ostaig/Jon Schueler Estate, 2016.

Copyright © Sabhal Mòr Ostaig/Jon Schueler Estate, 2016.

Gheibhear fiosrachadh mun Jon Schueler Estate & an 2016 Centenary Year aig www.jonschueler.com

For information about the Jon Schueler Estate & the 2016 Centenary Year visit www.jonschueler.com

no faodar tadhal air an Estate anns na meadhanan sòisealta:

or follow the Estate on social media:

Jon Schueler

@JonSchueler

JonSchueler.blogspot.com

“All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without prior written permission of the publishers, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permisson requests, contact the Jon Schueler Estate or Sabhal Mòr Ostaig.”

An DĂšbhlachd 1970, Jon Schueler aig an doras, Romasaig. Dealbh-chamara: Magda Salvesen.

December 1970, Jon Schueler at the door of Romasaig. Photo: Magda Salvesen.

...the Sound of Sleat in which I find the living image of past dreams, dreams which had emerged from memory and the swirl of paint.

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