Tartarus
An exhibition of artworks by the Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize 2021 Choice Winner
Grete Hjorth-Johansen
Curated by Averil Curci
On display at the Ashurst Emerging Artist Gallery, 25th October 2021 - 7th January 2022
For Norwegian artist, Grete Hjorth-Johansen the forest represents a sanctuary: a place where worldly preoccupations are abandoned and nature ushers you into a space of magic, stillness and protection. Specifically, the tumult of 2020 brought Grete back again and again to the ancient woodlands of Epping Forest on the north-eastern outskirts of London. The dead stumps and twisted, split and hollow trees of this forest bear witness to the forestry practice of pollarding. Until the 1870’s the wood was cut continuously, exhausting the trees until sometimes only a hollow stem remained.
The series Tartarus began in calm moments of observation where Grete began to see the scarred trees and stumps like magnificent sculptures, mighty and proud but also alive with stories of pain and longing. Wanting to illuminate these arboreal personalities and the rich histories they reveal, she conceived an unusual and rather complicated process of using handheld torches and multiple exposures to create richly coloured composite photographs of individual trees.
“It’s a slow process, lighting each part of the tree while twilight turns into dusk. The owls make their presence known, I’m not so alone. A gust of wind disturbs the branches, oh the blurry mess. Try again. A fox is watching.”
The swirling legends conjured in a space so ancient led the artist to name the series after the place of torture and punishment in Greek mythology, also envisioning and titling each tree with the names of mythological characters. Alongside many others, most of the Titans and the fifty female Danaides were imprisoned in Tartarus. A photograph from the 2021 series Sanctum is also shown in the exhibition, revealing that the forest holds yet more magic and inspiration for Grete.
The series Tartarus began in calm moments of observation where Grete began to see the scarred trees and stumps like magnificent sculptures, mighty and proud but also alive with stories of pain and longing. Wanting to illuminate these arboreal personalities and the rich histories they reveal, she conceived an unusual and rather complicated process of using handheld torches and multiple exposures to create richly coloured composite photographs of individual trees.
“It’s a slow process, lighting each part of the tree while twilight turns into dusk. The owls make their presence known, I’m not so alone. A gust of wind disturbs the branches, oh the blurry mess. Try again. A fox is watching.”
The swirling legends conjured in a space so ancient led the artist to name the series after the place of torture and punishment in Greek mythology, also envisioning and titling each tree with the names of mythological characters. Alongside many others, most of the Titans and the fifty female Danaides were imprisoned in Tartarus. A photograph from the 2021 series Sanctum is also shown in the exhibition, revealing that the forest holds yet more magic and inspiration for Grete.