Richard Ashrowan, (English, born 1966) is a moving image/video artist working in Scotland. He specializes in multi-screen moving image installations, relating to themes connected with natural landscapes.

Biography

Ashrowan was born in 1966, in Essex, England. After training in

Chinese Medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. A large share of its claims are pseudoscientific, with the majority of treatments having no robust evidence of effectiveness or ...

he was a founder member of the charity Open Road, he played with an experimental ambient/techno band Shen in the early 1990s. From 2002 to 2007 he worked in partnership with Scottish artist Alexander Hamilton under the name 'Hamilton & Ashrowan'. The Threshold Artspace, a large and fully networked multi-media 30 screen digital canvas installation in Perth Concert Hall, was conceived by Hamilton & Ashrowan. Since 2007 Ashrowan has worked independently, creating works largely derived from locations in Scotland, including

Fingal's Cave Fingal's Cave is a sea cave on the uninhabited island of Staffa, in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, known for its natural acoustics. The National Trust for Scotland owns the cave as part of a national nature reserve (Scotland), national nature ...

on Staffa and the

Anglo-Scottish border The Anglo-Scottish border runs for between Marshall Meadows Bay on the east coast and the Solway Firth in the west, separating Scotland and England. The Firth of Forth was the border between the Picto- Gaelic Kingdom of Alba and the Angli ...

. His works have been exhibited at the Foksal Gallery and Fabrycka Sztuki in Poland, the Brukenthal Museum and Casa Artelor in Romania, the

Scottish National Portrait Gallery National Galleries Scotland: Portrait is an art museum on Queen Street, Edinburgh. Portrait holds the national collections of portraits, all of which are of, but not necessarily by, Scots. It also holds the Scottish National Photography Collec ...

in Edinburgh, An Tobar in Tobermory, The Forest Gallery, Selkirk, the

Ruskin Gallery The Ruskin Gallery is a gallery within the Millennium Galleries in Sheffield, England. It houses a collection of minerals, paintings, ornithological prints, drawings, manuscripts and architectural plaster casts assembled by John Ruskin. It f ...

in Cambridge, and the Threshold Artspace in Perth. Alongside his practice he is currently (2009) pursuing a postgraduate research project at

Edinburgh College of Art Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) is one of eleven schools in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Tracing its history back to 1760, it provides higher education in art and design, architecture, histor ...

. He lives and works in the Scottish Borders.

Work

Ashrowan's work is in video installation, still photographic works on paper and written texts, based upon close observation of natural landscapes. His earlier work was strongly influenced by

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English polymath a writer, lecturer, art historian, art critic, draughtsman and philanthropist of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as art, architecture, Critique of politic ...

. In 2007 Hamilton & Ashrowan were commissioned by the

to make a series of moving-image portraits of

Richard Demarco Richard Demarco CBE (born 9 July 1930 in Edinburgh) is a Scottish artist and promoter of the visual and performing arts. Early life He was born at 9 Grosvenor Street in Edinburgh on 9 July 1930 the son of Carmino Demarco and his wife Elizabe ...

. In 2009 he produced a book of photographs of the border between England and Scotland.Joan McAlpine, ''Life on the edge: An artist explores the Borders''
''The Sunday Times'', 29 March 2009. to accompany a solo exhibition of his film and photography installation 'Lament', exhibited in Romania. Ashrowan describes his work as a process of "honing down the overwhelming complexity of a given landscape place to find within it those images and movements in time that seem to hold the essence of a feeling, a vital intensity. Many of the images I create could be described as microcosms of place, emotion, time and memory."

Exhibitions

Solo and Group exhibitions ''2009''
Lament / Fingal's Cave, Atlantic Islands Festival, Isle of Luing, Scottish Centre for Geopoetics, July 2009

, Mendelssohn on Mull Festival, An Tobar, Tobermory, Isle of Mull, June 2009
Lament,

Society of Scottish Artists The Society of Scottish Artists is a Scottish artist-run organisation which seeks to ''promote and encourage experimentation and the "adventurous spirit" in Scottish art.'' It was founded in 1891 by Patrick Geddes, William Gordon Burn Murdoch and ...

annual exhibition, Vision Building, Dundee, May/June 2009
Lament, Forest Gallery, Selkirk, April 2009
Lament, Casa Artelor, Timișoara, Romania, March 2009 ''2008''

, Foksal Gallery, Warsaw, Poland, June/July 2008 ''2007''
Contact Rushes, Fabrycka Sztuki, Lodz, Poland, December 2007
Contact Rushes,

The National Brukenthal Museum ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The' ...

, Sibiu, Romania, November 2007
Contact Rushes,

, Edinburgh, August 2007
Evanescence – Ice/Thaw Norway, Demarco European Art Foundation, Edinburgh/Glasgow ''2006''
A Landscape Symphony in 22 Movements,

, Cambridge, October 2006 ''2005''
A Landscape Symphony in 22 Movements, Threshold Artspace, Perth Concert Hall, Perth, October 2005
The Guru, Threshold Artspace, Perth Concert Hall, Perth, October 2005 ''2003''
The Windmills of Innerleithen, Innerliethen, Scottish Borders, June 2003
Reception, Ledingham Chalmers, Edinburgh, January 2003

Residencies

''2007''

Brantwood Brantwood is a historic house museum in Cumbria, England, overlooking Coniston Water. It has been the home of a number of prominent people. The house and grounds are administered by a charitable trust, the house being a museum dedicated to ...

, Former home of John Ruskin /

Trust, Coniston, Lake District, England ''2004–2005''
Threshold Artspace, Perth Concert Hall, Perth, Lead Artist

Public collections

Threshold Artspace, Perth Concert Hall, Perth

Anglia Ruskin University Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) is a public research university in the region of East Anglia, United Kingdom. Its origins date back to the Cambridge School of Art (CSA), founded by William John Beamont, a Fellow of Trinity College at the Unive ...

, Cambridge
Corporate Collections:
Ledingham Chalmers, Edinburgh

Publications

''Lament'', Nowhere Arts, Artists monograph 2009
''Borderline'', Timișoara, Romania, Group catalogue/ conference paper 2009 – In Romanian and English
''Fingal's Cave / Blue Flora Celtica'', Foksal Gallery, Poland, Joint exhibition catalogue 2008
''Contact Rushes / Poprzez Portret'', Fabryka Sztuki / Narodowe Centrum Kultury, Exhibition catalogue 2007
''A Landscape Symphony in 22 Movements'', Threshold Artspace, Exhibition catalogue 2005
''Threshold'', Threshold Artspace, Project catalogue 2005
''The Windmills of Innerleithen'', Exhibition catalogue 2005
''Reception'', Ledingham Chalmers, Exhibition catalogue 2003

References

External links

Foksal galleryThreshold Artspace – Scottish Arts CouncilThreshold Artspace at Perth Concert HallRichard Ashrowan
– artists own site
Hamilton & AshrowanOpen Road
Charity {{DEFAULTSORT:Ashrowan, Richard 1966 births Living people Scottish contemporary artists British video artists Alumni of the Edinburgh College of Art