Artist Tour: Gathering Surfaces One Year On | St Andrews Botanic Garden

Gathering Surfaces One Year On: Artist Tour with Dan Drage, followed by a Q&A
St Andrews Botanic Garden, Canongate, St Andrews KY16 8RT
Friday 4 October 2024, 14:30–16:00 BST

St Andrews Botanic Garden are delighted to announce an artist-led tour of the garden with Dan Drage, who will discuss his discuss his art works which make up Gathering Surface, one year on from their initial installations. This will be followed by a Q&A with curator Anne Daffertshofer. 

Dan developed Gathering Surface as part of his practice-led PhD, a collaboration between the Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts (ITIA) at the University of St Andrews and Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design (DJCAD) at the University of Dundee. Natural materials and processes are at the heart of Dan’s sculptural works, which are placed in various locations around the garden. He is particularly interested in working with wood, using methods such as charring. Inspired by minimalists such as Carl Andre and land artists such as David Nash, Drage’s sculptures play with the visitor’s perception. While some can be seen from a distance, his Pit and Mount and the Sleeping Log pieces almost elude the eye as the natural world reclaims the space, blurring the lines between what is nature and what is culture. They are an invitation to question these boundaries and to venture through the garden with a perspective open to finding art intertwined with nature in sometimes unexpected places. 

Dan will consider the collaborative role of time and soil in these works, and ask what this might teach us about being human in nature (that is, in the world). He will also offer reflections on these works as central to his exploration of immanent and transcendent realities.

Free with garden admission – pre-booking strongly recommended via Eventbrite. This event will take place in the Boiler House followed by an opportunity to view the installation in the Garden.