exhibitions & events 2021

Rachel Duckhouse

A Gathering (Come Bye)

A Gathering (Come Bye) is an exhibition of work by Glasgow based artist Rachel Duckhouse, made in response to her RSA Residencies for Scotland residency in the summer of 2019. Rachel walked the 156 miles of the Hebridean Way, from Vatersay to Stornoway, then spent two weeks in the studio at Taigh Chearsabhagh in Lochmaddy, North Uist, reflecting on her experience of the landscape.

The pen and ink drawings and two copper plate etchings are developed from initial sketchbook drawings Duckhouse made whilst at Taigh Chearsabhagh. She became fascinated by the crofting architecture that she came across on her walk and its relationship to the landscape, social history, and the threat of future sea level rises in these low-lying islands. Rachel was drawn to the mysterious sheep fanks, stepping stones and carraidh (fish traps) made by countless crofters over the generations, especially after she was invited to join a gathering of sheep in North Uist by local crofter Alasdair MacDonald and his son Sam.

Duckhouse had intended to develop her sketchbook drawings into a series of small and large scale etchings for this exhibition. In early 2020 she printed two small copper plate etchings, and was starting work on larger scale prints when Glasgow Print Studio was closed due to lockdown restrictions. From then she began drawing at home. Her dislocation from her usual working environment, her changed relationship to the world outside, and her heightened sense of connection and disconnection to the islands greatly influenced the resulting works.

Her abstracted, geometric drawings of the landscapes she walked through are based on memories of her brief time on the islands, and North Uist in particular, and on the connections between physical presence and memory, in the past, present and future. This is the second of two exhibitions of these works – the first being at Taigh Chearsabhagh in summer 2020.

Rachel Duckhouse is a Glasgow based artist working in a range of media including drawing and printmaking. The complex patterns and systems in nature, human behaviour and the built environment form the basis of her practice.

Image: Rachel Duckhouse, Vattersay Fank IV, pen & ink.