United Kingdom
Statement
Arthur Laidlaw’s work emphasises the hubris of ‘Western’ viewers looking onto canonised landscapes. The experience of drawing and photographing ancient architecture in the Middle East, months before the Arab Spring, has profoundly shaped the way he sees the world. Laidlaw’s exhibition Razed: Syrian Ruins depicted Syria’s built environments, and the disparity in international responses to their destruction: from widespread condemnation of the demolition of classical ruins, to resignation in the face of regime bombardment of inhabited ancient cities. The resilient inhabitants of Ladakh, Nubra, and Spiti, in the Himalayas, are the focus of Laidlaw’s recent work, and their future is no more stable Syria’s eight years ago. Each place is caught in its own way – between the aggressions of India and Pakistan, the desperate plea for peace by the Kashmiri people, and the Chinese denial of Tibetan statehood. Laidlaw’s work tries to make sense of these conflicting forces, acknowledging the near-miraculous ability for each community to continue as normal, as though nothing threatens their way of life.
Profile
GlogauAIR resident from January of 2018 to March of 2018
GlogauAIR Project
Laidlaw was born just after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, and his next project seeks to examine the way in which borders dictate the physical and emotional landscape of different places. Whether the permeable line defining Northern Ireland, the encroaching mesh fences that separate Israeli settlements from Palestinian olive trees, or the promise of a towering wall on the US-Mexico border, these markers act as clues to the identity of the people who erect them, and those who tear them down. They signify the end of ‘us’, and the beginning of an ‘other’. Each of Laidlaw’s projects is preoccupied with viewer expectations; his complex renderings of a landscape through dozens of different material layers present a destabilising image that asks us to question our assumptions of a place. These layers reflect the our own efforts to try and understand a new culture when travelling – followed by our attempts to try and recall the original experience, even as the memories of that place begin to fade and distort
CV Summary
Exhibitions
- 2007 Three Generations Of Artists, Joint show at Sewell Centre, Oxford
- 2009 Odyssey, Solo show at Lennox Gallery, London
- 2010 ING Discerning Eye, Group show at Mall Galleries, London
- 2011 Oxford Castle, Group show at O3 Gallery, Oxford
- 2014 Chattanooga, Solo show at 1401 Gallery, Tennessee
- 2015 16/15, Group show at Muse Gallery, London
- PLATFORM, Group show at Embassy Tea Gallery, London
- City & Guilds MA Degree Show, Degree show at City & Guilds, London
- Curio II, Group at Brixton Ritzy, London
- CRUK Christmas Carols, Solo show at St Paul’s Cathedral, London
- 2016 Byam Shaw: Summer Show, Group show at Old Brompton Gallery, London
- Razed: Syrian Ruins, Solo show at gallery@oxo, London
- Oxford Art Society 125th Anniversary Exhibition, Group show at The Cloister Gallery, Oxford
- ARTROOM, Group show at Old Brompton Gallery, London
- 10×10: Drawing the City London, Group show at RIBA, London
- Inspiring Generations, Group show at D-Contemporary, London
- 2017 Hangar 1, Group show at SomoS Art House, Berlin
- Arthur Laidlaw | Emily Girkins
Awards & Publications
- 2003 Art scholarship to Radley College
- 2008 Awarded top Art A-Level mark in the UK
- 2015 Published in Town & Country’s Fresh Coat
- Published in Barehill’s The State of Art
- Shortlisted for Landscape Artist of the Year
- 2016 Shortlisted for Ashurst Emerging Art Prize
- Winner of Oxford Art Society Artist of the Year
- Published in 30 Percent Creative, Interview
- Published in Photomonitor, Interview
