Robin Dance
Photographs in the series Stein Prison, Austrian Landscapes and Die Brücke were made while I was Artist-in-Residence, Galerie Stadtpark Krems (2002 to 2004).
The Stein Prison series was made in and around the high security prison Justizanstalt Stein (interior and exterior views of the prison, and nearby landscapes), in Krems an der Donau.
Austrian Landscapes offers a more bucolic, lyrical view of the countryside around Krems and elsewhere in Lower Austria.
The Die Brücke series was made at the Krems-Mautern Bridge spanning the Danube. These more architectural photographs mark a departure from my earlier practice of working almost exclusively as a landscape artist.
Japanese Landscapes was made in 2000 whilst I was Kamiyama Artist in Residence (KAIR) in Tokushima Prefecture, Japan.
In Japanese Landscapes I reflect on the 'concretised' landscapes of Kamyama, a rural district on the island of Shikoku in Western Japan, where the native deciduous forest was cut down to make way for uniform industrial forest blanketing much of the landscape. This brutal reforestation caused major landslips on hillsides, which are now reinforced by ubiquitous concrete walls, where nature is sometimes creeping back.
Remains was made in in seven European countries from 1991 to 1995, and the exhibition toured on the European mainland with British Council support.
In Remains I explore and examine the landscapes of the Holocaust, in some of the places where it happened. Most of the photographs are arranged as diptychs and triptychs with one polyptych (five photographs).
Education 1970-73 Fine Art, Hornsey College of Art/Middlesex Polytechnic, London; 1968-70 Foundation Studies, Colchester School of Art.
Teaching 2008 Chair of Examinations Commission, Tartu Art College (Estonia) 2007; Visiting Lecturer, Kunstuniversität Linz (Austria) 2007; Visiting Lecturer, University College Falmouth; 2006-2007 Guest Professor of Photography, Tartu Art College; 2000-2004 Part-time Lecturer, University of Brighton; 1998-1999 Visiting Lecturer, Ecole d'arts appliques, Vevey (Switzerland); 1995-2001 Visiting Lecturer, University of Brighton; 1990-1999 Part-time Lecturer, Surrey Institute of Art & Design, Farnham.
Public Collections Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, Germany); Permanent Collection of the Lower Austrian Government, St. Pölten, Austria; Centre Régional de la Photographie Nord Pas-de-Calais, Douchy-les-Mines, France; Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessalonika, Greece; The Ulmer Museum, Ulm, Germany; KAIR Collection, Kamiyama, Japan.
Solo exhibitions 2008 Robin Dance: Die Brücke, Galerie Göttlicher, Krems an der Donau, Austria; 2004 Remains, Salle des Fetes, Saint-Venant, France; 2004 Robin Dance: Photography, Kunsthalle Krems/Galerie Factory, Austria; 2002 Japanese Landscapes, Sebra Gallery, Tartu, Estonia; 2002 Remains, Lycee de l'Escaut, Valenciennes, France; 1998 Landscapes, Photosynkyria 98, Thessalonika, Greece; 1997 Le Ventre de la Bête, Galerie du CRP, Douchy-les-Mines, France; 1995 Remains, Martinskirche, Langenau, Germany; 1995 Remains, Ulmer Münster, Germany.
Selected group exhibitions 2007 1,2,3 Couleur, College Albert Chatelet, Douai, France; 2004 Blow Up, The Ulmer Museum, Ulm , Germany; 2002 Export, Yokohama Portside Gallery, Yokohama, Japan; 2001 Naturstuecke: Photographien 1850 - 2000, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart , Germany; 2000 KAIR 2000, Kamiyama Festival, Japan; 2000 Paysages Marqués, Galerie du CRP, Douchy-les-Mines, France; 2000 The Sleep of Reason, Norwich Gallery; 1999 Continuities and Discontinuities, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessalonika, Greece; 1996 Myth and Landscape, European Cultural Centre of Delphi, Greece.
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