GRAHAM RICH
ANCHORED UNDER RED ROCK
The Fine Art Society in Edinburgh presents
GRAHAM RICH
ANCHORED UNDER RED ROCK 20 April - 12 May 2018
View the exhibition at www.fasedinburgh.com/exhibitions For sales and enquiries please contact Jamie Mackinnon: +44 (0)131 557 4050 jamie@fasedinburgh.com
Trying to Reach the Sea is a sculpture which uses an old rowing boat as its central component. The boat was found in a back eddy on the River Exe in Devon – a back eddy in which floating objects destined for the sea often become trapped. The boat developed as a sculpture over a number of years and has revealed its meaning slowly through the process of its making. To begin with the boat was a dustbin for beach litter – fishing floats, bait coffins, broken oars, seign nets and rusting metal were all collected together in the boat. These objects were subsequently ordered positioned and placed as if subconsciously preparing for a long voyage. Voyages require destinations and this sculpture in its advanced state of decomposition and excessive deterioration was clearly going nowhere. It was physically incapable of reaching any sea: yet it maintained its contingencies to do so, its routines, its disciplines and its hope for the future. At the stern of the boat is a lens mechanism, an oblique reference to The Occulist’s Witnesses in Marcel Duchamp’s Large Glass. At the front of the boat is a two dimensional grid which contains images of the sea. The lens is focused on these images, acting like horse blinkers, and isolating the spectator from the surrounding reality. Only the destinations are seen, the immediate reality is obscured. One piece of the boat fabric cuts the lens but this is camouflaged. Through the lens the boat becomes a metaphor for existence – for futility and for hope, of survival and of endeavor – a resistance against the way the world defeats us. The text pinned to the grid is from Four Quartets – The Dry Salvages by T. S. Eliot We cannot think of a time that is oceanless Or of an ocean not littered with wastage Or of a future that is not liable Like the past to have no destination In this exhibition, the boat has arrived at anchor under Red Rock and is surrounded by material found on its various voyages. The found objects have become an archive of time spent on the water, and of the experience of the sea, and of the difficulty of navigation, and of reaching destinations, and of the struggle to reach physical and spiritual places. - Graham Rich, 2018
1. DICK HOOK - UNDERWATER, 2018 found material and marine paint 35 x 29 cm
2. WHITE PAINTING RIVER EXE, 2006 found material and marine paint 50 x 38 cm
3. RIVER YEALM DIPTYCH, 2018 found material and marine paint 61 x 99 cm
4. THE NORTH WALL, 2008
found material and marine paint 120 x 210 cm
5. RETREAT BOATYARD BOOK, 2005 found material and marine paint 20 x 25 cm
6. CROSSING THE RUST SHELF, 1990 found material and marine paint 45 x 80 cm
7. A HANDFUL OF SAND, 2018 found material and marine paint 110 x 90 cm
8. ANCHORED UNDER RED ROCK, 2018 found material and marine paint 56 x 39 cm
9. FINDING A WAY THROUGH, 2017 found material and marine paint 95 x 66 cm
10. ISLA CORTEGADA DOOR, 2018
found material and marine paint 49 x 68 cm
11. ISLA CORTEGADA FLAG, 2018 found material and marine paint 40 x 67 cm
12. RIVER YEALM TRIPTYCH, 2018 found material and marine paint 60 x 150 cm
13. WINDOW, 2018
found material and marine paint 66 x 90 cm
14. VERTICAL INTERVALS 1-17, 2018
found material and marine paint 60 x 11 cm each
15. SAILING FREE FROM A DANGEROUS LEE SHORE, 2004
found material and marine paint framed 43 x 169 cm
16. LYME BAY AFTER RAIN, 2003 found material and marine paint framed 22 x 43 cm
17. TURF REACH RIVER EXE, 2012
found material and marine paint 40 cm diameter
18. CALLING THE PORT HAND LAY LINE FOR ANDREW found material and marine paint 26 x 25 cm
19. UNDER THE SHADOW OF BOLT TAIL, 2008 found material and marine paint 20 x 13 cm
20. CLOUD
found material and marine paint 32 x 30 cm
21. LOOKING FOR LORCA’S THIRD ARCH
found material and marine paint 12 x 22 cm
22. EARLY MORNING BOW CREEK RIVER DART found material and marine paint 21 x 22 cm
23. CROSSING THE BAR SALCOMBE
found material and marine paint 17 x 18 cm
24. GLITTERING SEA
found material and marine paint 33 x 38 cm
25. SAILING WITH MALEVICH FEB 23rd 2018
found material and marine paint 32 x 42 cm
26. TAKING THE INSIDE PASSAGE START POINT found material and marine paint 34 x 28 cm
27. AN ANGEL PASSING TO WINDWARD
found material and marine paint 13 x 33 cm
28. FLARE PATH OFF FERRARA BEACH found material and marine paint 18.5 x 36 cm
29. LITTLE CLOUD
found material and marine paint 16 x 22 cm
30. BOATS AND BIRDS
found material and marine paint 14 x 12 cm
31. SAILING INTO THE BIGHT
found material and marine paint 20 x 29 cm
32. LOOKING FOR THE FAIRWAY found material and marine paint 22 x 25 cm
33. ON STAND BETWEEN TIDES found material and marine paint 40 x 40 cm
34. NIGHT VOYAGE, 1988
found material and marine paint 13 x 227 cm
35. CROSSING DAY’S LEDGE
found material and marine paint 16 x 27 cm
36. TRIPTYCH FOR I H F
found material and marine paint 25 x 19 cm
37. RED ROCK REFLECTIONS
found material and marine paint 18 x 20 cm
38. START POINT, 1999-2018
found material and marine paint 21 x 21 cm
39. TRYING TO REACH THE SEA found material and marine paint 200 x 125 x 240 cm
40. SAILING PAST THE BLACK SQUARE
found material and marine paint 25 x 23 cm
41. EASTERLY SQUALL
found material and marine paint 7 x 8 cm
42. CROSSING THE LEDGE
found material and marine paint 16 x 29 cm
43. SUMMER SEA
found material and marine paint 21 x 30 cm
44. LUCKY BLUE SHIFT
found material and marine paint 13 x 23 cm
45. I WILL FOLLOW YOU HOME
found material and marine paint 16 x 28 cm
46. HOW I FEEL TODAY
found material and marine paint 28 x 20 cm
47. EXPLORING CAVES UNDER RED ROCK
found material and marine paint 19 x 11 cm
48. FIVE BOATS LEAVING THE BIGHT
found material and marine paint 17 x 57 cm
49. HIGH PRESSURE
found material and marine paint 14 x 39 cm
50. LEAVING FIRST PERCH TO PORT D.
found material and marine paint 25 cm diameter
51. REACHING HOME PAST DAWLISH WARREN
found material and marine paint 29 x 12 cm
52. SIVER TRIPTYCH
found material and marine paint 10 x 16 cm
53. MARKS MADE BY THE ACTION OF WATER found material and marine paint 24 x 14 cm
54. UNSTABLE AIR SAILING THERMAL SHIFTS
found material and marine paint 15 x 35 cm
55. GATEWAY
found material and marine paint 10 x 35 cm
56. WAITING FOR THE TIDE
found material and marine paint 5 x 22.5 cm
57. THINKING OF VIGILANT
found material and marine paint 10 x 23 cm
58. BART VAN DER LECK
found material and marine paint 7 x 19 cm
59. DEBEN FOUR TONNER JANE
found material and marine paint 9 x 26 cm
60. SAILING INTO THE LIGHT
found material and marine paint 5 x 32 cm
61. LEAVING BANTHAM
found material and marine paint 9 x 8.5 cm
62. UNDER THE FLOORS
found material and marine paint 12 x 26 cm
63. TWO BOATS
found material and marine paint 10 x 6 cm
64. YOU LEAD THE WAY
found material and marine paint 7 x 38 cm
65. THE CROSSING
found material and marine paint 14 x 22 cm
66. LIFTING CHRIS JONES OFF RED ROCK BEACH
found material and marine paint 16 x 73 cm
67. SAILING IN A NORTH WESTERLY GUST
found material and marine paint 11 x 20 cm
68. SHIPS THAT PASS
found material and marine paint 13 cm diameter
69. DEBEN found material and marine paint
13 x 9 cm
70. BETWEEN TIDES
found material and marine paint 19.5 cm diameter
71. PATIENCE
found material and marine paint 14 x 20 cm
72. FERRARA BEACH
found material and marine paint 40 x 37 cm
73. TACKING INTO BOLT HEAD
found material and marine paint 8 x 14 cm
74. MEWSTONE PASSAGE
found material and marine paint 17 x 15 cm
75. THE DAY BEFORE YESTERDAY
found material and marine paint 20 x 16 cm
76. SAILING OVER THE CLOCK found material and marine paint 17 x 31 cm
77. LIME KILN - BOW CREEK
found material and marine paint 10 x 9 cm
78. NORTH DAY BEFORE DUSK
found material and marine paint 14 x 20 cm
79. WET AND DRY
found material and marine paint 17 x 14 cm
80. ROGER’S RULE
found material and marine paint 23 x 5 cm
18
The Fine Art Society in Edinburgh
6 Dundas Street, Edinburgh, EH3 6HZ +44 (0)131 557 4050 www.fasedinburgh.com art@fasedinburgh.com
Published by The Fine Art Society in Edinburgh for the exhibition
GRAHAM RICH ANCHORED UNDER RED ROCK held at 6 Dundas Street, Edinburgh, EH3 6HZ from 20 April to 12 May 2018 Catalogue © The Fine Art Society in Edinburgh Images © Graham Rich All rights reserved
Front cover: River Yealm Diptych, 2018 no.3 (detail) Inside front cover: River Yealm Triptych, 2018 no.12 Title page: Finding a Way Through, 2017 no.9 (detail) Left: A Handful of Sand, 2018 no.7 Back cover: Mewston Passage, no.74
The Fine Art Society in Edinburgh