Linda Thompson
Linda feels that our experience of walking in the landscape can be an experience of visual beauty even in the most inclement of weather and conditions, but in reality we will sense the coldness or warmth of the air, the pressure of the breeze on the body, and the texture of the ground and landscape around us. Cloud formations may weigh heavy on the landscape or barely skim the sky and rain may be refreshing on the skin or it may feel as if it penetrates unpleasantly to the bone. Whilst there may be living creatures within that landscape there is also the presence of the dead, their remains lying scattered and in various stages of decay on the ground, often ravaged by predators.
Linda has worked with rocky landscape forms for many years and has often included cup and ring markings or spirals, or perhaps a reference to the human form. Recently her experiences have triggered a wider use of materials which may range from small animal bones, teeth and claws, insect wings, wool, seed pods, human hair, fingernails, foliage, to discarded rusty metal which may be found in the landscape. (Animal bones, claws and wings are always taken from already dead creatures). Rather like looking at clouds in the sky and deciphering images we recognise, the rocky structures and foliage will themselves suggest forms and ideas which are stored in the creative subconscious. She may also add words or sentences to the work which reinforce the nature and creative identity of the piece.
Linda’s other line of work is created in response to a location, historical building, or theme, and is often site specific. For example ‘Chain Gang’ which was created for a Yorkshire Sculptors Group exhibition at Harlow Carr, derived from what Linda felt was a common childhood memory of laying on the grass and twining flowers together into a daisy chain. This idea mixed with the sense of a ‘chain gang’ which reflected how some people perceive these little flowers negatively in their lawns, prompted her to use metal chain and hang on to it the flowers which were made from water based fibreglass, polystyrene, lollipop sticks, and paint. The flowers, like many of her sculptural ‘objects’, are hugely enlarged from life, and the chain hung from tree to tree. A new and unexpected dimension to this work was created when it became part of the venue’s light show.
The piece called ‘Puppet’ was created for an exhibition commemorating the role Scarborough had during the First World War when the town was bombarded from the sea. Here there is the idea of how little control people have over themselves and their own lives in times of war and how the population is used by the enemy to try to create an atmosphere of fear and submission. The child is in separate, broken, pieces and held together by wire. He/she is tagged with a brown Identification label on one foot and the head is torn open with the names of the people who died in the bombardment pasted inside the head. Personal reflections of the devastating impact of war have combined together to create this tactile three dimensional form.
Both lines of work have intertwined and overlapped for many years and Linda’s work is still growing and changing, her use of materials still expanding, and she is still discovering different ways in which to express her aesthetic ideas and experiences in our challenging and changing world.
