This residency brings into dialogue two apparently unrelated landscapes of extraction—Peru and Essex—through the production of a new body of work by Lima-based artist Alejandro Jaime that will respond to the geology and extractive industries located around the River Colne, which runs alongside the University of Essex’s Colchester campus.
Jaime’s practice hinges on landscape forms and mining industries, making him a natural fit to respond to the living history of extraction that has long shaped the River Colne area. Using painting, photography, land art and sculpture, the artist constantly interrogates natural and human impacts on the environment, working across an expansive timeframe that tracks spatial shifts through geological strata, pre-Columbian civilizations, industrialisation and ecological decline.
An artist whose practice is rooted in direct experience of landscapes through journeys and walking, Jaime will develop his work through a combination of site visits, research and studio practice in Essex. In collaboration with Dr Lisa Blackmore from the School of Philosophy and Art History, this project invests in the speculative potential of art-making to generate fictions and documents that connect diverse communities through shared processes of geological, industrial and environmental changes that shape landscapes worldwide.
Following on from Gone to Ground, the outcome of this residency will be presented in collaboration with the University of Essex Collection of Art from Latin America (ESCALA) as a solo exhibition here at Art Exchange, opening on 22 February 2019.
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