Through the Looking Glass, Dimly was an international collaboration project from 2011-2012 between Contemporary Art Exchange and blind photographers Andrew Follows (Melbourne) and Rosita McKenzie (Edinburgh). The project featured an exhibition, artist-led photography workshops and other events run over 2 weeks as part of the 2012 Edinburgh Art Festival.

Andrew’s hunger for travel and Rosita’s passion for collaboration were the driving forces behind the project, and key to the rationale behind Contemporary Art Exchange’s involvement. We also wanted to do something a little bit different for the Art Festival: to reposition artists often found on the periphery, to the center of mainstream contemporary art, and question the preconceptions about what visual art should be and who has permission to create it.

Follows and McKenzie were drawn together by their experiences of visual impairment, an interest in night photography and the effects of fire on the natural environment. Their intriguing and fascinating images of the everyday challenge the notion of sight, perception and knowing and question the presumed role vision plays within creating contemporary art.

Through the Looking Glass, Dimly

This project in 2010, was a unique collaboration project between Melbourne artist Carl Scrase, Contemporary Art Exchange and Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, consisting of a month long residency, Carl’s first international solo exhibition and two public events.

Life:Death:Edinburgh:And explored physical displacement, spirituality and the role of art within society. Carl used found materials to create sculptures that responded directly to his experiences travelling from Australia, through India to Edinburgh. A collection of Chrystal spires and handmade necklaces transformed Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop’s Garden Pavilion into a temporary crypt-like space.

Central to his practice is the concept of ‘synchronicity’. In other words, “meaningful coincidence, significantly related patterns of chance; acausal, meaningful, unique events that involve some form of pattern”.

Renowned authors Herman Hesse, Haruki Murakami and Salman Rushdie, were key influences on his work at the time. Of the exhibition, Carl wanted to explore the notion “that reality is not as solid as some would have you believe; things change, life is fluid and it can vibrate in weird and wonderful ways between polarities if you push it in just the right way.”

Life:Death:Edinburgh:And

A group exhibition in 2010 featuring eight Edinburgh based artists: Becky Campbell, Agot Bugge, Alicia Bruce, Sally Jubb, Haleh Jamali, Roween Suess, Lindsay Boyd and Lizz Ross. Part of Edinburgh’s vibrant and intimate network of artists, these select artists are linked by their shared experiences of travelling to Edinburgh for the purposes of study or participation in the arts. Responding through a variety of media, each artist examines the role of cultural identity and its relationship with physical place in their own way.

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