Judith Lawson
Post-Landscape Atmosphere : Painting Under a Cloud
This research project seeks a place for painting and responsiveness to the physical world through the trope of landscape when living in a time of threatened ecology.
Our views about nature have become more fraught than ever before, we question the whole inter-relatedness of all beings and things. Without having to set foot outdoors, we are constantly streamed a plethora of visual information. This is enormous and complex―political, economic, environmental. It triggers a continual sense of alarm or unease. This is the backstory to the post-landscape condition.
I have considered “atmosphere” not simply as climatic conditions but in its use as a metaphor for internal states or feelings. A sense of something more than simply physically concrete or experienced directly, but atmosphere may be felt as emanating from places, humans, animals, as well as inanimate sites. Waste, environmental toxicity, the pervasive and unfathomable spread of plastic pollution, all have their own energy that cannot be ignored.
