Alexander and Susan Maris The Pursuit of Fidelity (a retrospective)

Slide show: 

During the 2010 Edinburgh Art Festival Stills presents the first solo exhibition in Scotland of Glasgow based artists Alexander and Susan Maris. The Pursuit of Fidelity (a retrospective), curated by Lisa Le Feuvre, takes a journey through the last twenty years of the artists’ practice. Moving across and between the mediums of photography, sound, sculpture, painting and drawing, this exhibition examines ideas of representation, truth and temporality.

The title of this exhibition is from a 15th century tapestry in the Burrell Collection showing a pair of lovers following a stag through a forest. Woven into the small German wall-hanging is the caption: ‘we are hunting for fidelity and if we find it we would rather live in no dearer time.’ The pursuit of fidelity is a search for truth, faithfulness and accuracy. The Marises follow this impossible quest through an examination of the relationship between myth and landscape, focusing on geographical sites that reverberate with cultural, personal and environmental histories. From Rannoch Moor to Scottish suburbia, Joseph Beuys to the AK-47 assault rifle, mountaineering to motor biking, the Marises draw the distant past into an equally remote future through a process of doubling and fabulation that opens the denseness of photography out into the unreliable perceptual realm.

The Pursuit of Fidelity (a retrospective) travels back into time through the present to speculate on how possibilities from one place or time can be reconfigured in the present. Seeking out fissures across time and space, the Marises search for the persistence of truth, in the face of this journey’s failure.

Friday 30 July - Sunday 12 September

A programme of artists' films, featuring 13.08 by Alexander and Susan Maris, responding to The Pursuit of Fidelity (a retrospective)  focusing on travel, the human relationship to landscape, re-enacted journeys, and a sense of place. 

Limited Edition Print

On the occasion of this exhibition Alexander and Susan Maris have made a limited edition print The Pursuit of Fidelity (detail) defining the 'transition' from Momenta to 'The Pursuit...'

Available only from Stills, the signed print is in a numbered edition of 60.

Dimensions: 9 x 14 cm on 8 x 10 inch paper

Special exhibition price: framed £200, unframed £100

Postage and packing: UK addresses £25, international locations £85

For further information or sale interests please email programme@stills.org

Image credit; The Pursuit of Fidelity (detail) 1997 - 1998 Gelatin Silver Print

The Pursuit of Fidelity (a retrospective) is presented with the support of LABoral and Film and Video Umbrella.

Stills' Events are presented with the support of Vino Wines