theEye: Dalziel + Scullion

Artists Dalziel + Scullion have worked together since 1993, based in the remote north east of Scotland. Using photography, video, sculpture, sound and installation, they have created a collection of work that is recognised for its distinctive vision and sensitivity to its context and the environment.

They are well known for their site-specific works, which include important public commissions, such as Horn, the giant stainless steel sculpture sited on the M8 motorway, which intermittently broadcasts poetry, music and voices at passing cars. They reflect on how these works illustrate the contradiction between the strange hybrid of wilderness and the high-tech, man-made industrial installations found in the remote landscapes of Scotland. The point at which nature and culture intersect is a continuing theme throughout their work, despite a more recent shift in geographical focus.

In this video profile, Dalziel + Scullion discuss their continuing fascination with timescales and how their work attempts to reflect on the vast gap that exists between the limits of human history and the incomprehensible span of geological processes and creation. Home, the artists' first solo exhibition at The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh in 2001, comprises an important body of new work, set against the backdrop of the magnificent glacial landscapes of northern Scandinavia. Their art reflects on the primary themes of landscape, evolution, religion and time, and represents a rediscovery of landscape as a means of reflecting on fundamental ideas about the world we live in today.