Kelly Richardson: The Last Frontier

This first retrospective publication features an extensive look at the UK-based Canadian born artist's audiovisual installation works of the last fifteen years, and accompanies a major solo exhibition showing in both England and Canada. Richardson's works play with the idea of the hyper-real, a notion that due to our increased use of new media we can no longer distinguish from the real or the constructed. In particular she is fascinated by the way in which we connect with landscape and within her deeply layered practice she draws on devices from Hollywood science-fiction and horror, landscape painting and wildlife cinematography. The results are complex cinematic installations that present us with locations that appear real but have been subtly doctored with CGI, animation and sound to create an unsettling, otherworldly atmosphere. The lack of any physical human presence enhances the work; often making the scenarios feel like a post-apocalyptic future.