Dùthchas: through the Artist’s Lens

Dùthchas: through the Artist’s Lens is a new body of work painting from cinematic archive film ‘stills’ of 1960s and 70s Berneray captured by Ann and Bill Scott, transcribed anew by painter Yasmin Davidson.

“What makes photography a strange invention – with unforeseeable consequences – is that its primary raw materials are light and time.”  John Berger

In recent years Davidson’s work has evolved through photographing familiar island subjects in the landscape then developing these into new visual imaginings with oil paint. The transcription of photographic stills from Scott’s 8mm films, recently presented within the documentary film Dùthchas, is a fresh departure and has brought as Berger signals ‘unforeseeable consequences’.  Selected compositions are charged through Davidson’s distinctive colour palette where painted realities float on exotic coloured grounds. 

Berneray has been scrutinised and celebrated by photographers and filmmakers over many years. Yasmin Davidson’s paintings are a valuable new addition to this archive offering a reflection on the past through the lens of contemporary painting.

Text edited from a longer article by Keith McIntyre, RSA, Professor Emeritus in Fine Art at the UHI, available in a newly published pamphlet on Yasmin Davidson’s paintings from Taigh Chearsabhagh.