There’s a link to this performance on the following page:
https://rachelbrideashton.com/2019/11/28/destroying-desires-2/
We do ‘not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious’ (Carl Jung)
I use painting, printing, poetry, music, video, sound and performance to explore betrayal, the shadow archetype and projection as understood in Jungian psychology while also trying to keep my holistic and environmental concerns in mind. I scrutinize our shallow understanding of sexual desire and betrayal within a western, monogamous cultural framework and the surrounding shame that prohibits open discussion of this embarrassing subject, by visualising the individual stripped down to their body parts in a state of arousal. As a species forever in our heads, I try to use some humour to depict us, in all our raw and exposed animal glory and to encourage questioning of our current sexual script.
RACHEL BRIDE ASHTON (b. 1976, UK)
rachelbrideashton@gmail.com|https://rachelbrideashton.com
I use painting, printing, poetry, music, video, sound and performance to consider damage and repair, both psychological and in the natural world. Human waste, environmentalism and holistic and sustainable living are also at the core of my work.
In my landscape paintings, I explore themes of solitude, escape, survival and childhood games of losing oneself in wild and free places and worlds. Focusing on the overlooked areas of the North East of Scotland and its flora, I play with the effects of light and expose its transcendental colours.
I am endlessly fascinated by the shapes and patterns that are created when the straight lines of farmland cut into fluid undulating surfaces, our continual attempts to manage and make order of the chaotic wilderness and the wild beauty that always creeps back in around the edges. I try to depict the terrifying loneliness of remote abandoned and derelict buildings and natures swift reclamation of our marks on the land.
In my video and performance work I use Carl Jung’s shadow archetype as a vehicle to scrutinize, our understanding of desire and betrayal within a western, monogamous cultural framework, to encourage open discussion.
Education
2019 – present, Fine Art BA (Hons), Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee
2018 – 2019, NC Music, North East of Scotland College, Aberdeen
1993 – 1994, NC Art and Design, Glasgow College of Building and printing, Glasgow
Residencies
April 2017 – May 2019, Walking Without Walls, Digital Residency, Deveron Projects, Huntly
Events and Achievements
- November 2019, Church Dundee, Performed in Fleeting Motions – A Show Case of Performance Art
- November 2019, 28 Coutties Wynd, Dundee, Art Party – Exhibition, Performance and Discussion
- August 2019, Repair, album release
- January 2019, Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums Lunchtime Talks at the Maritime Museum, Aberdeen – Presented A Transcultural Exchange
- August 2018, The Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh Arts Festival – Art, Borders and Migration – presented Walking Without Walls
- August 2018, Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts, Austria – Global Academy II, Examples of Transcultural Exchange- Presented Walking Without Walls as a Pecha Kucha
- May 2018, Walking Without Walls, Tate Modern, London – Film included in Tate Exchange Programme Presented by Cornerstone Arts
- April 2018, Walking Without Walls, Huntly – Simultaneous Slow Marathons in Scotland and Gaza
- 2015, The Story of Mouse– Collaborative book publication
- 2014, Featured on Sky TVs ‘Portrait Artist of the Year’
- 2017 – 2019, Collaboratively hand built and established an off-grid, self-sufficient natural house and five-acre forest gardens, Aberdeenshire
- 2002 – 2016, Opened and ran Northern Eye Gallery, Ceres
- 2002 – 2018, Led workshops, classes, walks and private tutored in intuitive painting, healing weeds, plant journaling, natural paint-making and clay oven and rocket stove building
- 1997 – 2019, Home educated my two children
Collections
The Town Collection, Huntly
ConocoPhillips,RubislawHouse, Aberdeen
Various private collections in the UK and the United States
Solo Exhibitions
2018, Ethical Gift Shop, Huntly – Walking Without Walls
2018, The Bank Restaurant, Huntly
2015, The Art Room, Huntly
2015 The Gallery, Elgin Library, Elgin – Repair
2015 The Tearoom, Castle of Park, Cornhill
2015, 2014 NEOS, The Bothy, Knock
2013 NEOS The Old Shop, Huntly
2013 Larks Gallery, Ballater
2011 Touched by Scotland, Insch
1999, 2013 Still Life Studio, Aberlour – The Painted Land
2005, 2006 The Blue Door Gallery, Pittenweem
2002, 2004, 2006 Northern Eye Gallery, Ceres
2000 Insomnia, Glasgow – Postnatal Impression
Duo Exhibitions
2018, 2017 The Ethical Gift Shop, Huntly
2017, 2015 Forgue Church, Forgue
2007 Still Life, Aberlour
1999 Logie Steading, Forres
1996 Barnyard Studios and Gallery, Garmouth – Mojo
Collective Exhibitions
2019, Mathew Building Upper and Lower Foyer, Dundee – Rubatosis
2019, The Cooper Gallery, Dundee – Studio Jamming
2019, The Artist’s Studio, Aberlour
2019, RBS Building, Huntly – Five Huntly Artists
2019, The Blue Roof Gallery, Oyne
2019, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2011, 2009 Larks Gallery, Ballater
2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, Imagine at 27, Banff
2016, 2015, The Wee Gallery, Cullen
2016, 2014 Archies Art, The Wood Group, Aberdeen
2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012 The Holburn Gallery, Aberdeen
2015 Teasel and Tweed, Aberdeen
2015, 2014, 2013, 2012 The Elgin Gallery, Elgin
2016, 2014, 2012, 2009 Art Aboyne, Aboyne
2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2005, 2004, 2003 Still Life, Aberlour
2011, 2004, 2000, 1999 Just Art, Fochabers
2009, 2008 Coast Festival, Macduff
2007, Mcgregor Fine Art, Glasgow
2007, 2005 Carby Art, Aberdeen
2004 Eduardo Allessandros, Broughty Ferry
2004 The Queens Gallery, Dundee
2004 Gallery Nomansland, Aberlour
2004, 2003, 2002 Iona House Gallery, Woodstock, Oxford
2002 ConocoPhillips, Rubislaw House, Aberdeen
2002 Indigo for Contemporary Art, St Andrews
2002, 2000 Frames Contemporary Gallery, Perth
2002 The Old Course Hotel, St Andrews
2001 Nickleson Gallery, Scone
2000 The Fotheringham Gallery, Bridge of Allan
2000 The Glasgow Room, Princes Square, Glasgow
2000 The Gallery, Cupar
2000 The Weem, Pittenweem
Rachel Bride Ashton 