ASCENSION
NEW DRAWINGS BY CHARLEY YOUNG
EXHIBITED + AVAILABLE AT STUDIO 21 FINE ART GALLERY, HALIFAX, NS
For centuries, mountains were places to be feared, seen as ‘ugly protuberances’ and ‘deformities of the earth’ — their form and scale disrupting the symmetry and balanced weight of the Earth. This landscape represented a dangerous, inhospitable and powerful place. Yet, mountains are places to be known, places of imagination, contemplation and awe. Mountains also entice, drawing travellers and mountaineers alike to conquer their slopes and summits— attracted by the quest to experience the utmost point of our physical world.
This series of new drawings, based on helicopter travels through the Rocky Mountains, depicts a close and intimate passage through this alpine landscape. Mountains become fragmented and incomplete as perspectives shift and change — memory and movement of the artist's flight path mimicked and imagined. “To the traveller, a mountain outline varies with every step, and it has an infinite number of profiles, though absolutely but one form,” writes Henry David Thoreau. This exhibition explores ascension and proximity to make visible rock faces, scree slopes, tree lines, striations, and mountain contours.