REVIEWED BY RHYS FULLERTON
For many contemporary artists, getting their work exhibited can often by the hardest part of the process. Owning your own art gallery should make it easier, but for Alison Auldjo, owner of the Union Gallery, this is her first exhibition in three years. Auldjo is an artist in her own right, but running a thriving contemporary art gallery in central Edinburgh can be time-consuming and leave little opportunity to paint. Lifelines is well worth the wait.
Auldjo’s ability to paint landscapes is clear and seems to be second nature. The relationship between the artist, the environment and nature is evident in every painting on display. One of the highlights is one of the smaller paintings on show – ‘Rural Mysteries’ (below). The bleak landscape is scratched into the canvas and the setting sun is almost insignificant, its light and heat won’t be able to win the fight against the changing of the season.
When Auldjo combines nature and people in her landscape paintings, we learn more about the artist and see a deeper thought process.
In ‘Hide and Seek’ (below) we see a boy knelt down, with an older girl standing beside him. There is vulnerability in this work, the subjects seem to be lost or caught where they’re not supposed to be. The girl, a sister perhaps, is watching over the boy, a protector, an ever watchful eye looking at the painter, the viewer or someone else.
There is also a connection between the wilderness and civilisation. Although we don’t see them collide, there is a feeling that these landscapes have yet to be harmed by mankind, but that fate is soon to come. The people that we see appear gentle and familiar with nature. In ‘The Chase’ Auldjo shows five horses blissfully unaware that there is a grand old building looming in the background. It’s as if they haven’t seen it, they don’t know what they’re up against just yet.
In ‘Lifelines’ (below) a young boy sits cross-legged on a snow-covered surface, with two deer standing beside him. The boy is not watching them. Is he unaware of how close he is or has he seen it all before? Perhaps he is scared, scared to go back and scared to go forward. In exhibitions at the Union Gallery over recent years, themes of nature and childhood have cropped up quite often. Whether this has been deliberate or coincidental I don’t know, but ‘Lifelines’ seems to fit this tradition and is another highlight of the exhibition.
There is playfulness in some of Auldjo’s paintings but there is also sombreness. Although a few of the landscapes are bleak, it doesn’t mean that they are not attractive. Bleakness doesn’t always have to represent a mood or a feeling; it can be beautiful in its own right.
We are now in autumn, and with the night’s drawing in and the weather starting to change there is something oddly familiar in the paintings on display. I grew up in the countryside and each painting seems like a memory from my own childhood. These paintings – individually and combied – have captured a moment in time, not just mine or the artist’s but all innocent childhoods.
If there is a lifeline in this exhibition it should refer to the artist and not just the title of the show or one of the paintings. Let’s hope that this exhibition pushes Auldjo to continue to paint and help her become an artist who just so happens to own a gallery. ‘Lifelines’ continues an excellent run of exhibitions for Union Gallery ... long may it continue.
Lifelines will show at the Union Gallery (45 Broughton Street) until 3 November.
