Mirage Valley
Tom Lovelace was artist in residence at Lendi Projects from May to June of 2015 and, as per the mission of the residency, produced work that responded to the isolated and mountainous Engadin Valley. This is the first time his artistic practice has engaged so directly with nature, however his photographic work has previously often taken the outdoors as its subject matter. The idea of the line was Lovelace’s ‘way in’ to all the work conceived during the residency, which is primarily photographic, but also includes sculpture.
'It is the concept of the line that has been at the forefront of my thoughts since arriving in the Upper Engadin on 25 May. On the ground (the populated villages and towns), domestic life is grounded in geometry, the straight edge, and the line. But the line in the Engadin is different from the line in the fens. In the fens, the straight edge has no other. There is no différence (J Derrida). The line and its significance has affected me more in five days in the Engadin than it has in thirty-three years in the English fens. In the Engadin, it is as though the horizontal and vertical line is constantly weighed upon by the ever-present mountains and dominant natural forms. The manmade lines found in the towns of the Upper Engadin are in constant flux, competing with the natural forms of nature never far away in the distance, seemingly hovering above.' Tom Lovelace
