EDGELANDS | paul-martin

EDGELANDS

November 2014 - January 2015

Edgelands was an exhibition of work by Paul Martin and Idris Murphy.

Murphy and Martin, who exhibited together here for the first time, met in London at the age of 22; they met again in Perth, Western Australia at 65, a meeting which planted the seed for this show. The intervening years were spent painting and making, teaching and learning, seeking an understanding of the nature of nature and a sense of which what Martin has called “the gritty sacredness of places and things”.

Geographically, at least, the artists are – almost literally – poles apart: Idris Murphy is drawn back time and again to the Australian bush and desert, to a landscape drenched in colour and heat which offers, he says, “enough to last me a lifetime”. Having lived and worked in Australia for a number of years, Paul Martin has also been influenced by that colour, that heat. However his more recent works on paper, cursive, scratchy and evocative, map and mark the Scottish shoreline, the vigour of rock and cloud, of sand signs and seawrack.

The works on show were complemented by a soundscape, a living garden and a series of texts by leading Scottish and Australian writers reflecting on the ecological and environmental challenges we face across the world. This strand of the show is collated and introduced by the renowned novelist and short story writer Tim Winton, twice Man Booker nominee and recipient of the Australian Government Centenary Medal.

www.idrismurphy.com

www.thewarburtongallery.com