ALISON AULDJO: 'LIFELINES'

REVIEWED BY RHYS FULLERTON 

For many contemporary artists, getting their work exhibited can often by the hardest part of the process. Owning your own art gallery should make it easier, but for Alison Auldjo, owner of the Union Gallery, this is her first exhibition in three years. Auldjo is an artist in her own right, but running a thriving contemporary art gallery in central Edinburgh can be time-consuming and leave little opportunity to paint. Lifelines is well worth the wait. 

Auldjo’s ability to paint landscapes is clear and seems to be second nature. The relationship between the artist, the environment and nature is evident in every painting on display. One of the highlights is one of the smaller paintings on show – ‘Rural Mysteries’ (below). The bleak landscape is scratched into the canvas and the setting sun is almost insignificant, its light and heat won’t be able to win the fight against the changing of the season.

When Auldjo combines nature and people in her landscape paintings, we learn more about the artist and see a deeper thought process. 

In ‘Hide and Seek’ (below) we see a boy knelt down, with an older girl standing beside him. There is vulnerability in this work, the subjects seem to be lost or caught where they’re not supposed to be. The girl, a sister perhaps, is watching over the boy, a protector, an ever watchful eye looking at the painter, the viewer or someone else. 

Watching and being watched crop up again and again in these works, whether it’s the foxes being caught playing in the field in ‘The Foxes Come at Night’, or the deer in ‘The Stare’ (top-right), or the hares in ‘The Delegates’ (below) to name but a few.

There is also a connection between the wilderness and civilisation. Although we don’t see them collide, there is a feeling that these landscapes have yet to be harmed by mankind, but that fate is soon to come. The people that we see appear gentle and familiar with nature.  In ‘The Chase’ Auldjo shows five horses blissfully unaware that there is a grand old building looming in the background. It’s as if they haven’t seen it, they don’t know what they’re up against just yet. 

In ‘Lifelines’ (below) a young boy sits cross-legged on a snow-covered surface, with two deer standing beside him. The boy is not watching them. Is he unaware of how close he is or has he seen it all before? Perhaps he is scared, scared to go back and scared to go forward. In exhibitions at the Union Gallery over recent years, themes of nature and childhood have cropped up quite often. Whether this has been deliberate or coincidental I don’t know, but ‘Lifelines’ seems to fit this tradition and is another highlight of the exhibition.

The depiction of childhood continues in ‘Patriot Games’ where we see two boys possibly returning home. Perhaps they’ve been re-enacting some great battle. It’s an innocence we rarely see these days, with computers and phones being more prominent play tools. The painting ‘In the Thick of It’ (below) uses actual leaves to make up the trees. This added dimension subtly enhances the power of the painting. We encounter two boys looking at a dog which has appeared through the trees. The trees are like a divide between the people and the wilderness; the dog is split between the two, unsure of which to choose. 

There is playfulness in some of Auldjo’s paintings but there is also sombreness. Although a few of the landscapes are bleak, it doesn’t mean that they are not attractive. Bleakness doesn’t always have to represent a mood or a feeling; it can be beautiful in its own right. 

We are now in autumn, and with the night’s drawing in and the weather starting to change there is something oddly familiar in the paintings on display. I grew up in the countryside and each painting seems like a memory from my own childhood. These paintings – individually and combied – have captured a moment in time, not just mine or the artist’s but all innocent childhoods. 

If there is a lifeline in this exhibition it should refer to the artist and not just the title of the show or one of the paintings. Let’s hope that this exhibition pushes Auldjo to continue to paint and help her become an artist who just so happens to own a gallery. ‘Lifelines’ continues an excellent run of exhibitions for Union Gallery ... long may it continue.

Lifelines will show at the Union Gallery (45 Broughton Street) until 3 November.

Image above: Alison Auldjo, 'The Grass is Always Greener on the Other Side'.