shannon ribbons

surreal, metaphysical and imaginary scenes

TIMELINE

My latest video, currently showing at the Collective exhibition at Durlston (www.purbeckcollective.co.uk)

The exhibition title is "Beginnings" and this animation is an imaginary trip into some early memories and more recent outcomes...

Shannon Ribbons uses elements of nature and mundane objects to invent mysterious, dark, sometimes threatening pictures of an imagined countryside. The juxtaposition of the two elements gives his art its magical, beautiful qualities. There is a feeling of innocent familiarity in his work when initially viewed - yes, trees, branches, a gate, a window, water, stone, even some chairs, but what is that there - a rough beast slouching towards Bethlehem to be born?

It's as if you are lost and wander into a dense wood and alarmingly you discover things you have not seen before and cannot identify. Each picture evokes an unfinished story; something unusual could happen, or it already has. Ribbons has mastered digital art, using charcoal, paint, drawing, photography, to create a 21st century journey into the surreal unknown. The journey takes you from the artist's subjective experience through forgotten memory into a dream of reality, another world elsewhere.

Patricia Welles 2009

view the gallery

Surreal landscapes, imaginary figures, mythical places... digital art layered over charcoal drawings, photographs filtered and distorted, like washes of watercolour. The pictures often based on views of Purbeck, the coast and country of this corner of Dorset offering a constant source of inspiration. Here were men working quarries, digging into the fossil rich bones of the country, the sea pummels out more ancient creatures, frozen in time... there is good air, and much unspoilt landscape, it is possible to sink out of sight for a while. Armed with camera, quick forays into this landsdcape are rewarded with signs and textures that may become the clothing and actors of another pictorial drama.