David Lemm
Edinburgh College of Art
Roots, Ruins and Remnants
Panel: Materiality
I will present a recent project which highlights the experience of landscape as a research strategy and prompt for illustrative enquiry. In 2023 I was invited to exhibit at Moray Art Centre, which led to an exploration of Findhorn and the surrounding terrain. The resulting work focuses on the erosion of the Moray coastline, whilst considering broader narratives around the fixity of place and our increasingly precarious environment.
Beginning with walks around the coast, I collected an archive of imagery and objects to produce the work, including roots, branches, sand, crumbling concrete and eroded steel from wartime defences. From this library of remnants, I constructed layered assemblages which highlight overlooked aspects of the topography and present the landscape as an entangled mesh of cultural and organic systems.
The work also aims to challenge fixed notions around meaning, use and value of materials. With charcoal found on the beach, I made textural rubbings on site and depictions of root networks drawn directly on admiralty charts. This charcoal was then displayed as an artefact of process, alongside other foraged materials. Fragments of the decaying concrete structures, pebbles, bark and delaminated rust were presented as if relics, juxtaposed with screen printed imagery documenting and abstracting their original context. Sand is applied to each work, notably the edges, to suggest sand as a supporting substrate. This echoes the stratified coast and references particular narratives that have shaped contemporary Findhorn; the original village was lost to the sea due to shifting sands, and the sandy soil thought to be too poor to grow vegetables before the miraculous Findhorn Garden.
Alongside collected materials, compositions feature plywood forms derived from sea fastenings. These geometric shapes are primarily employed as framing devices to view details from the local terrain, alluding to complex relationships between human industry and the landscapes we inhabit and inherit.
David Lemm’s practice is informed by subjective encounters with place, process and artefact. Spanning assemblage, printmaking, drawing and installation he constructs works through a synthesis of existing materials, often discovered through situational enquiry.
David trained in Animation at Duncan of Jordanstone, Dundee and his approach has evolved with a multidisciplinary ethos. He has undertaken numerous residencies and was Illustrator in Residence at House of Illustration (2015/16) Recent commissions include public artworks in Lerwick, Edinburgh and Royal Brompton Hospital. His work has featured in various publications, including Illustration Research Methods (Gannon, Fauchon 2021). David is a Lecturer in Graphic Design at Edinburgh College of Art.