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).
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