Exhibition organised by Margaret Kerr
5th – 25th November 2023
Green Gallery, Dundee Botanics
This exhibition features work by eight artists who spent an August weekend making art in the Botanics this year.
Our work was inspired by the Japanese concept of Renga. Renga is a form of poetry composed by a group of authors: each contributing their part in a dynamic, unfolding process. It encapsulates the experience of being in a specific place and time.
Renga offers the chance to escape the limitations of a single viewpoint. It weaves together different, but connected pieces, like ‘shimmering threads’ into a whole, which is greater than the sum of its parts (Ogawa) .
This allows a feeling of place and time to emerge between the lines. This kind of feeling can be delicate, but leave the reader with a powerful sense of ‘something’ greater than what is explicitly said. The Japanese writer Terada Torahiko likened this subtle but potent sense to ‘a plum’s scent on a dim moon night’
As artists from diverse backgrounds, together we made a visual / auditory / somatic / verbal renga, which is this exhibition.
Working in this way, we supported and learned from each other’s practice. We also became intimate with the stones, pigments, water, plants, sounds, animals, insects, colours and textures of the Botanics, which all contribute their voices to the poetry of the place.
