Landscape is not a genre but a medium…[it is] a natural scene mediated by culture. It is both a represented and presented space, both a signifier and a signified, both a frame and what a frame contains, both a real place and its simulacrum, both a package and the commodity inside the package.”

-J.W.T. Mitchell, Landscape and Power

On Landscape # 1

On Landscape # 1, triggered by a series of conversations between artists Minna Kantonen, Dafna Talmor and Emma Wieslander revolves around a shared engagement with pictorial conventions of landscape. Wanting to extend this dialogue into a physical space of enquiry the exhibition will feature the work of the three artists, a display of publications sourced from an open call and a site-specific installation by invited artist Minna Pöllänen. Creating an interactive online presence via a dedicated website and transforming Guest Projects into a dynamic space in which thought-provoking debates can take place between fellow practitioners and a wide-ranging audience is the aim of the project. This project will serve as an ideal opportunity to pilot future versions of On Landscape.

As On Landscape # 1 seeks to instigate a series of discussions, raise questions and incite debate on representations of landscape, a central element of the project will consist of an open call for self-published, handmade or short run books relating to the exhibition framework. The publications, on display throughout the exhibition, will provide a platform for wider debates around landscape whilst presenting an opportunity for emerging practitioners to showcase their work.

On Landscape # 1 will take place at Yinka Shonibare's Guest Projects space in East London throughout the month of March 2014.

To keep up to date with our project please connect with us though Twitter (@OnLandscape_1) and Facebook where we will be posting news and updates regularly.

Events

Theoreticians and practitioners working in the field of landscape will be invited to contribute to the show through a series of events including an artist talk chaired by Photomonitor editor Christiane Monarchi, a panel discussion and walking crits. The exhibition aims to engage with landscape in its widest sense, extending beyond the physical space of the gallery through a themed local walk led by Minna Pöllänen and a live radio broadcast with contributing artists. Alongside the physical space of enquiry, an interactive social media presence and website will aim to capture public responses and encourage participation.

List of events:

·      An artists’ discussion chaired by Christiane Monarchi, Photomonitor editor 

·      A panel discussion exploring exhibition themes with invited guests

·      Walking crits will be an opportunity to dicuss projects and ideas with the exhibitiing artists

·      A local themed walk led by Minna Pöllänen looking at the biodiversity of the local area

·      A live radio broadcast

·      Curators’ talks for Fine Art/Photography students

Who We Are

Project co-curators and RCA Photography Alumnae Dafna Talmor, Minna Kantonen and Emma Wieslander are London-based artists.

Dafna Talmor’s photographs are included in private and public collections such as Deutsche Bank and Hiscox, featured in publications such as ArtReview, Camera Austria, Hotshoe, and Elephant. Talmor was nominated for the Paul Hamlyn Artist Award (2005), received the IV Daniela Chappard Biennale Photography Award (2007), Photofusion Select Bursary Award, a Grants for the Arts Award and selected for the Renaissance Photography Prize, Archisle # 2 Photography Open and the W-CA Contemporary Landscape Photography Open in 2013.

Minna Kantonen received the Research Residency Award at Art Gene, Barrow-in-Furness (2005) and an Arts Council of South West Finland Grant for 'A Small Book of Trees’ publication (2005). Recent shows include Photobook Show at Brighton Photo Biennial (2012) and The Jolly (Good) Show, Collyer Bristow Gallery, London (2010). Kantonen’s work has been featured in publications such as Source (IE) and Photographie (DE) and is currently a Principal Lecturer in Photography at the University of East London.

Emma Wieslander’s work has featured in magazines such as BON, Vogue and Harper’s and books such as The Collectors Guide to Emerging Art Photography and deep-north – transmediale 09. Exhibitions include Kaunas Photo Festival, Lithuania (2012), GSK Contemporary; Art of a Changing World at the Royal Academy of Art (2010), Internationale Fotografie II: into Landscape at Galerie Helmut Hartman (2009). Wieslander was recently awarded the Culturefund for Sweden and Finland grant for Distracted and Bewildered at Galleri Pictura.

Minna Pöllänen holds an MA with distinction in photography from London College of Communication. Her works have been shown in group and solo shows internationally including FreshFaced+WildEyed 2012 exhibition at The Photographers’ Gallery in London, the biannual YOUNG ARTISTS exhibition at the Kunsthalle in Helsinki and Montreal/Brooklyn in Galerie Les Territoires in Montreal and A.I.R. Gallery in New York. Recent site-specific commissions include Observatory I, II and III, built in Brooklyn Bridge Park, downtown Montreal and downtown Helsinki. Pöllänen’s work has been kindly supported by The Kordelin Foundation, Arts Council of Finland, Frame Fund and The Finnish Cultural Foundation.

Your Support

The dedicated website and its contents of texts, images and podcasts will act as a valuable resource during and after the exhibition for anyone interested in the theme of landscape.Your support will specifically go towards producing professional promotional material as well as commissioning a professionally coded website. As our aim is to use the exhibition at Guest Projects as a platform of investigation for future On Landscape exhibitions and events a professional website will help us greatly.

The Pledges

We have tried to come up with a range of pledges so that everyone will find something they like. If you live outside of the UK you can, besides a HUGE THANK YOU and the digital postcard, go for the set of postcards or the specially designed posters, as well as the online portfolio review.

If you want to go for the portfolio review and have a preference on who you would like to meet please state this in your pledge.

A very large THANK YOU for your interest in our project and for your support!

We are looking forward to meeting you at Guest Projects in March 2014!

Dafna Talmor from the 'Constructed Landscapes' series

Minna Kantonen from the 'Urban Vistas' series

Emma Wieslander from the 'Burnt' series

Minna Pöllänen 'Establishing an Average' from the Nature Trail series