Lynn Dennison

Human Traces

The works of Lynn Dennison depict constructed natural environments such as city parks and public beaches to examine our everyday relationship with the landscape.

A new video work by Dennison will be exhibited for the first time in this exhibition. Runners 2014 depicts static shots of a London park, interrupted by figures jogging through the frame. The composition is carefully balanced to refer to traditional representations of the landscape, in both painting and photography, with winding paths framed by established foliage and trees. This ‘natural’ public space, which is carefully preserved and managed for the enjoyment of the city’s residents, is seen here as a backdrop for day-to-day human activities.

Filmed over the period of a year, the video transitions between the seasons, from lush greenery, to falling leaves and snow. The changing states appear to be barely registered by the solitary runners as they plot their path through the environment. Often wearing headphones, they seem absorbed in private worlds, and disconnected from the world around them. The camera lingers until the figure disappears from view, growing smaller until they disappear behind a line of trees, or over the brow of a hill, suggesting their vulnerability against the enormity of nature, and the impermanence of our individual human traces upon the earth.

Born in Cumbria, England, Lynn Dennison now lives and works in London. She graduated with a B.A. in Fine Art from the Slade School of Art in 1987 and later completed an M.A. in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins in 2013. Recent exhibitions include Waterfall and Border country at the De La Warr Pavilion, and Sweet Thames, run softly while i end my song at the Brunel Entrance Hall, London. She is the winner of the 2015 RBS Sculpture Shock Award.