About
Eilidh Hutchison, 1998
Lives and works in Glasgow, Scotland
My work centres around themes of time, memory, decay and preservation, typically reflecting and referencing a transient and melancholic state. I explore these ideas through photography, installation, sculpture and sound. Ruined spaces are at the centre of my practice – to me they are a place of solitude, simultaneously reflecting capitalist and political agendas of both the present and the past.
Georg Simmel wrote that when a building transforms into a ruin ‘the balance between nature and spirit… shifts in favour of nature. This shift becomes a cosmic tragedy… for now the decay appears as nature’s revenge for the spirits having violated it by making a form in its own image’. It is this balance, this shift, this space between, that interests me most. Light plays an important role within my work because its relationship with time is so intertwined.
Auto-destructive art is a significant influence within my work, as its key concerns, anti-capitalism and anti-consumerism, directly reflect themes of the ruin. The process of creating works that destroy themselves is incredibly interesting to me as the indeterminacy and liminality of this act offers endless possibilities for transformation. Most recently my work has been informed by the political acts of Margaret Thatcher and the lasting effects of her policies within Scotland; specifically the sites that were destroyed and the communities that were left in ruin. Researching this period in art through past editions of Variant magazine between 1984 and 1990, has given me an insight into the artistic context prevalent in Glasgow at that time; such as the controversy and machismo culture which surrounded work of The New Glasgow Boys. Knowledge of this context has made me much more aware of what it means to make work relating to this topic as a woman forty years later, comparing the similarities to the current political climate. I have been exploring this topic through the lens of auto-destructivism, particularly focussing on the continuing erasure of Scottish identity, language and culture.
Education
Edinburgh College of Art – MA Contemporary Art Practice, with Distinction, 2020 – 2021
Glasgow School of Art – BA Fine Art Photography, 1st Class Honours, 2017 – 2020
Glasgow Clyde College – HNC Art & Design, 2016 – 2017
Glasgow Clyde College – NQ Portfolio Preparation, 2015 – 2016
Selected Group Exhibitions
2021. ECA Graduate Show 2021 – Edinburgh College of Art
2020. Source Magazine: Graduate Photography Online
2020. GSA Showcase 2020 – The Glasgow School of Art
2020. DS2020 Simulator – Virtual Degree Show
2019. Motherlode, House for an Art Lover – Studio Pavilion, Glasgow, Scotland
2019. Artist Film Screening, Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, Scotland
2018. Fine Art Photography Book Launch, Transmission Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland
2018. Feedback Loop, Richmond Building, Glasgow School of Art, Scotland
Residencies
2016. House for an Art Lover – Studio Pavilion, Glasgow, Scotland
Eilidh Hutchison 