Glen Onwin (b.1947 Edinburgh) Lives and works in Edinburgh
Glen Onwin's art explores aspects of the natural environment, and conveys the artist's interest in exploring the properties of materials found in nature.
This large-scale installation, commissioned by the Parliament, deals with aspects of the Scottish natural landscape and of Scotland's historical past.
The artist has used lots of heather twigs, coated in red and black pigment and wax, to create the sense of a forest, or damaged landscape. The back panels are covered in tiny pieces of partially evaporated salt, a reference to an earlier work by the artist that explored the biodiversity of salt marshes.
The title of the work suggests the artist's interest in the impact that politics and society can have on the natural environment. The phrase 'mossers, rebels and wolves' refers to the clearing and burning of Scotland's forests to rid them of Jacobites, and how public fear of wolves resulted in the destruction of natural landscapes and the extinction of wolves in Britain.
Red and black are colours readily associated with the life cycle, and the use of these colours, in conjunction with the use of real materials from nature, creates a sense of organic power, and possbily a potential for regrowth.
"The work in essence represents the tree and its symbolic, alchemical meaning. Heather, with all its cultural associations, is the forest in miniature and the tenacity, diversity and variation within Scotland." Glen Onwin
Artist Biography
Born in Edinburgh in 1947, Glen Onwin studied at the Edinburgh College of Art in the School of Drawing and Painting. After some years teaching art and lecturing at Glasgow School of Art, Duncan of Jordanstone and Gray’s (Aberdeen) he took up a lecturing post at Edinburgh College of Art. He is an Associate Member of the Royal Scottish Academy.
He is represented in many public collections, including the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Tate Gallery, London, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Glasgow Museums, the City Arts Centre, Edinburgh, Dundee University, Edinburgh College of Art, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester and Southampton City Art Gallery. He has exhibited widely throughout the UK and Europe. Previous exhibitions include ‘Revenges of Nature’ at the Fruitmarket in 1988, where the artist utilised materials such as coal dust, wax, plant matter, chemicals and metals and returned to canvas based works. In 1992, he created a site-specific installation in a derelict building, the Halifax Square Chapel, for a Henry Moore Sculpture Trust project and in 1997, he created a large-scale installation in Geevnor Mine entitled ‘Blood of the Pelican’ for a Tate St Ives exhibition ‘Quality of the Light’ sited at various venues. This large installation of kite and rectangular shapes containers explored both the history of the local area and the processes involving in the mining of tin.
He was one of the artists who with Sutherland Hussey Architects and lead artist Jake Harvey won the RIAS best new building in Scotland award in 2003 for the Tiree Shelter. It was also short-listed for the Stirling Prize the same year. The other artists were Donald Urquhart and Sandra Kennedy.