Edward Clydesdale Thomson

Wandering through forests, heaths or gardens, sailing on seas and brooks, by boat, by raft or digitally, deep into history and creating visions of the future, Edward Clydesdale Thomson is always searching. It is not about finding one specific thing, but about the process of exploring and learning, time and again, and never doing the same thing twice.

Thomson sees a forest, city, garden, sea or port as places in which ideological points of view, cultural, political or economic, are present simultaneously, as layers of earth, entangled branches, winding alleys and swirling waves. His practice is situated in the midst of such situations, tries to acquire a place there and claim time. During the exhibition Into Nature (2018) he wandered through Drenthe in a self-built studio on wheels, working and experimenting in relation to the heath and the forests, and various other persons and entities that crossed his path, ‘below the soil, between the branches and above the clouds’. After he abandoned his photo camera during his time at the Rijksakademie in 2011, the long-term residency and subsequent exhibition Nothin’ Shakin’ but the Leaves on the Trees (2015) at the Marabouparken Konsthall in Sweden was a major turning point. The exhibition was developed in contact and partnership with people who had a relationship with the nearby primeval forest. In a subsequent project wild care, tame neglect in Huize Frankendael in Amsterdam, he even remained in situ for two years. This resulted in a series of work clothes, an open studio, interventions in the garden, an exhibition, performances, guided tours and a play, always developed in partnerships of various kinds.