Ishbel Angus Link Community and Language

IMAGE: Title: LOOK OF THE PLACE - Margaret Tait, 1981 (film still)
IMAGE: Title: PORTRAIT OF GA - Margaret Tait, 1952 (film still)
IMAGE: '(work in progress)', Oil and Pencil on canvas, 14.5 x 14.5cm
IMAGE: 'Two Chimneys', Pencil on A3 card (work in progress)
IMAGE: Title: XMAS LIGHTS - John Cowe, 1968 (film stills)
IMAGE: 'Sky-light', Oil on panel board, 21 x 29.5cm
IMAGE: 'Four Figures', Oil on canvas, 14.5 x 14.5cm
IMAGE: Title: CHRISTMAS LIGHT - 1971 (film stills)
IMAGE: 'Untitled', Oil on canvas, 90 x 60cm
IMAGE: Title: LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT - Russell MacKnight, 1968 (film stills)

I’m interested in the way in which both language and community are  universally a part of being human, yet can be demonstrated in a huge variety of ways. I want to examine this and explore the subtleties surrounding these ideas.

A film still from ‘LOOK OF THE PLACE’ by Margaret Tait caught my attention as I felt it really encapsulates the idea of community in a very subtle and simplistic way. I also liked the idea that these two houses, sitting next to each other, were talking in some way (maybe silently). I felt like I was immediately trying to anthropomorphise them (the buildings) which I thought was an interesting idea that I’d like to explore further. I also really wanted to capture the bleakness and subtlety by using only one medium in my drawing inspired by the film still. 

The painting titled ‘Sky-light’ was based off a photograph I had taken myself. I wanted to paint this as I felt that the two elements within it (the outdoor night sky and then the orange hues that came from a low lit room inside my house) were connected in a really beautiful yet formal, almost mathematical way.

The painting titled ‘Four Figures’ was also inspired by the two chimneys, as well as the contrasts of dark and lights in the christmas light films found in the archives, which helped me to start working on the larger ‘Untitled’ painting. I was interested in including subtle lines of red in order to once again draw back on the idea of structures and people interconnecting.

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