YOU ARE INVITED:
********* NEW! Limited Edition ROYAL WEDDING print available during duration of show ONLY! *********
PRESS RELEASE – 16/04/2011
For Immediate Release
Second Nature at Stockbridge’s Patriothall Gallery features new CMYK prints by Kit Leffler
Second Nature, which opens on Earth Day, the 22nd April 7-9 pm, and runs Tues- Sun. 12-5 pm April 23-30th, investigates the concept of human dominion over the natural environment. Leffler, an Edinburgh-based artist and postgraduate student at Edinburgh College of Art, shows both in America and Europe.
Leffler’s works question the natural and artificial through appropriation, alteration, and manipulation of digital images –recalling the worlds of advertising and science fiction. Through this process she encourages viewers to examine our perception of and role within the natural world. This exhibition features multiple new series of printed works by Leffler, including Mirage, Meat Entrepreneurs, and Genetic Bottleneck. Three of the works included in the exhibition were executed at Belgium’s prestigious Frans Masereel Centrum during a two-week residency in which Leffler took part during March 2011.
Leffler’s practice implements visual anthropology as a way of investigating the human experience of the natural environment: it is her interest that the works generate discussion between viewers rather than preach a political stance. Her process juxtaposes imagery liberated from many diverse web image locations: ranging from machinery manufacturers to scientific databases to Blogger travel blogs. However, not all of Leffler’s imagery is appropriated from the web: some images are Leffler’s photographs taken during travel or in studio and some are donated for use, as is the case with Simon Buckhaven’s image in one of the Meat Entrepreneur series.
After hearing a Radio 4 broadcast about the barrister/entrepreneur’s invention the Crustastun, Leffler was inspired to include Buckhaven in a portrait series that recognized major contributors to the food/meat industry and highlighted the ethical ambiguity of the corresponding machines. The Crustastun is a device that humanely expires shellfish with a quick electric jolt rather than slowly boiling alive. Due to Leffler’s interest in this topic, a dialogue has been created between the two and Buckhaven has kindly supplied Leffler with his photographic image for the portrait’s creation. This work will be exhibited for first time during Second Nature.
- The public is invited to meet the artist at the opening reception on Friday, 22nd April from 7-9 pm.
- Gallery hours are Tues- Sun. 12-5 pm April 23-30th. Patriothall Gallery is located at 1D Patriothall, off Hamilton Place, Stockbridge, Edinburgh EH3 5AY.
