Calum Colvin's Leviathan Elegy

This pair of artworks applies entirely different medias; however, both aim to achieve a sense of Scottish national identity. In Leviathan Elegy, there are three dimensional works combined together to construct an almost museum-like display in a manner of natural history exhibit, which can be seen in the labeling of the sculptural forms with single letter A from letter G in the top panel. These labels resemble that of the natural history museums that are used to define orthodox narrative or absolute classification. He innovatively constructs works of art using sculpture, drawings, sketchbooks and archival material that were previously unseen together. In Leviathan Elegy, Maclean’s intriguing box constructions apply found materials and form …show more content…
Colvin appropriates painted images from the annals of Western Art History and juxtaposes it with everyday objects, and transforms the original narratives into something creative and reflective. This might has something to do with Colvin originally worked as a sculptor and later turned to a photographer. His work is composed of different connotations of a variety of representations. Avarice is one of paintings from The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things, which composed of thirteen large-scale computer manipulated photo works, and are based on the painting of the same name by the Flemish painter Hieronymous Bosch in the fifteenth century. It shows a man in Scottish traditional costume, sailing a ship made of a globe with a movable hanging cloth rack. He sails from a cave like place with sea blue water to a landscape scene of mountain and plain land. However, if observed carefully, the spectator would find that landscape is real but unreal because of its frame – it looks like a plate. There are also many objects can be found in this photography presented as a series of symbols, they are bizarre but …show more content…
Maclean’s methodology is collective and abstract, with his construction of assemblage and found objects as a repository of collective memory. He recreates living, human stories with nature in these constructions. In Leviathan Elegy, the ship-like assemblage is accompanied by small round images that show abstract portrays of human figures bowing, engaged in some forms of rituals, and numerous columns. Therefore, the human relationship with the natural world is revealed in Leviathan Elegy in terms of its complexity, the human element is represented by cultural artifacts or artistic construction, corresponding the natural element. It is a unique a visual language that Maclean created. The construction is very beautifully distilled that would expand the spectator’s imagination, conception and understanding of Scottish highlands: the lifes between the land and sea, from the past till present. His multi-layered work shows his depth of knowledge and his own exploration of the histories and mythologies of the