Shifting Dimensions

摘要

It seemed particularly pertinent to be travelling by train on a studio visit to meet Richard Phethean, with the opportunity that it allows for viewing and following the changes of landscape outside of the carriage window, appreciating its underlying shapes and forms, and taking in the subtle colours of fields and woodland. You become aware of the qualities of lines, edges, and boundaries, the way a hedge demarcates and truncates the expanse of a field, or how the edge of a wood encroaches on the open land beside it. Occasionally, the eye is pulled to particular details, such as farmhouses, livestock, or wild birds scattered in the fields. The journey provides a preliminary experience, a warm-up before the main activity, which prepares me to respond to the work that I am about to see.