PITCH
Tim Ralston
Similarly to his previous exhibition JUT Ralston will for the exhibition at HI10, again produce artworks on site. The works will respond to a research trip to Telemark he made last October and reference in particular the production methods of the hydro electric power station in Rjukan around the beginning of the 20th century and the old iron mines in Fen, the site of the new REE explorations. The power station in Rjukan was produced hundreds of miles away in metalworks in Porsgrunn and transported up the valley to the waterfall by train and finally horses in small sections.
Ralston is fascinated by this idea of incremental growth and the critical mass of communal action. The sculpture takes the form of an abstracted mine shaft and brace the walls of the gallery focusing a path through the center of the space.
Supported by Telemark county municipality, Goethe Institut and Culture Moves Europe, EU.
PiTCH
Tim Ralston's ephemeral, architecturally scaled, site-responsive paintings intervene and slice through the spaces they temporarily inhabit. Ralston’s artworks are concerned with our connection to the landscape, and the specious nature of landscape as seen throughout art history. Within the confined parameters of this genre the artist makes work that examines what landscape painting can be. The traditional understanding of landscape is turned on its head, there is no ostensible depiction of nature in the works but rather they are an abstraction of the landscape; a visual realisation of his energetic relationship and response to an environment.
Ralston’s immersive paintings deconstruct the medium to its constituent parts, focusing on the support and surface. Experienced in the construction of painting panels he lets the rules inherent in this aspect of the practice inform the aesthetics. Viewed in the round the paintings become three-dimensional objects, challenging our perception of painting and the classic landscape genre.
Tim Ralston
Artist and Director of PADA, grew up in South-London and has been working in the arts for nearly 15 years. Tim now lives and works in Lisbon where he runs PADA studios, a not for profit gallery and residency. He also co-curates Recreational Grounds in London, an experimental exhibition program in a brutalist car park.
As a result of his work with PADA studios in Barreiro, Portugal, an area with similar dilemmas of industrial progress as Grenland, he was invited to make work that considered questions around sustainability in production.
PADA is an artist-led, non-profit arts organisation based in Barreiro in Lisbon’s South Bay, located within the old
Companhia União Fabril (CUF) industrial park. The area has similarities to Grenland Industrial Area. Create in 2018, PADA provides artists a space to develop their practice, interact with other artists, and explore new approaches in a post-industrial environment.
