Projects » The Conversation Piece
To celebrate the 130th anniversary of the SSA Annual Exhibition the society showcased a selection of works which represent how the history of the society has contributed to Scottish art culture. SSA members were invited to respond to one of the works. Rhona Fleming was then commissioned to submit a response to ‘Vertical Architecture’, a mixed media collage by Philip Reeves (1931-2017). Both works were then exhibited together at the Royal Scottish Academy, December 2022-January 2023.
The Conversation Piece
RF: Philip, are you busy up there in the celestial heavens?
PR: Well, I was just contemplating the clouds, enjoying the way they overlap and then drift apart leaving that all important space in between.
RF: ‘Vertical Architecture’ interests me on many levels; composition, balance, imbalance, materials and colour but when I saw it close up I was also drawn to your registration marks. That record of a thought, a slight hesitation, a decision, the evidence of your working methodology.
PR: It shows the conversation I was having with the piece. Don’t you think the process of making is a dialogue, one voice (the artist) informing and inviting a response from the other (the artwork), in an iterative process. Like the very conversation we are having now?
RF: Also, good conversations allow for space, thought, discussion and hopefully the resolution of uncertainties.
PR: They also take on their own identities and often fly off in unexpected directions.