Exhibiting Artists: Christina McBride

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In Practicing Landscape: Land Histories and Transformation, the work of Christina McBride is part of a larger body of research undertaken in the landscape of Mexico over the last ten years. 

Following a solo exhibition there in 2018/19 entitled ‘La Tierra de Rulfo : Ficciones Mexicanas,‘ she travelled south to Oaxaca to expand on more specific strands of this research. The work within the exhibition, concerns itself with the interweaving of time and highlights time as a construct for narrative.  Focussing on the mnemonic role of trees and their potential to link the sub-terrain, with the earth’s surfaces and skies and the past with the present and future, she responds to a number of specific trees which hold great cultural and spiritual significance.  This includes El Arbol de Tule (The Tule tree) which, with a circumference of over 46 metres has the widest trunk in the world.  

A subtext to the work concerns itself with medium specificity and a questioning of the relationship between the image, the material and the process. Works have been made using a range of Alternative Photographic printing processes that use the elements from the landscape (e.g.  silver, salt, sunlight) to create the image. Additionally, some prints have been made onto untreated recycled paper, reinforcing the cyclical connection between the paper, pulp, wood and tree.     

TOP IMAGE: Christina McBride, ‘Silver Ceiba,’ 2018 (40cm x 40cm): Triptych (Detail). Scanned analogue negative digitally printed onto recycled paper. Photo: Jack McCombe