Publication:
Contemporary, Issue 94, 2009

Headline:
Ivan & Heather Morison

Editorial:

By Eliza Williams

Ivan & Heather Morison are steadily gaining a reputation for being 'ecological' artists, with interest in their work, which often draws on nature and our interaction with it, dovetailing neatly with international concern over global warming and climate crisis. Yet their art is far more complex than a simple message of activism, and can often feel elusive and confusing, drawing on themes that include science fiction, travel, antropology, and of course the great outdoors. What brings all these ideas together is the couple themselves, who make regular appearances in their work, most prominently in their ongoing postcard series, which they use to send out small, poetic missives about their everyday lives.

The series began in 2001 and focused initially on Ivan's allotment in Edgbaston in Birmingham, from which he would send mail-outs on the garden's development: a report of the disappearance of his '1st prize-winning Elvis scarecrow', a list of colours and birds seen in the garden over the course of a year, or the more dramatic (in gardening terms, at least) postcard stating, 'Ivan is concerned by a powdery mildew that has appeared on his Green Bush marrows'. The postcards then evolved as the couple began travelling and working abroad, providing an abstract diary of their experiences - for example, 'Heather is dreadfully afraid. Ivan said she was safe with him, but he is the reason she has ventured so far', sent from Transylvania - as well as recording the events and people they met and observed.

The most recent card was sent from Venice, where the Morison's are representing Wales at the Biennale, alongside Richard Deacon and Merlin James. In addition to their postcards, they are exhibiting a large sculptural piece and installation using slide animation and sound. As with much of their work, these developed organically from a narrative that sparked their interest - in this case, an article Ivan read about an American couple who built a house-truck from two trees they felled, before travelling the country and selling organic lemonade from the vehicle. The installation documents the Morisons' visit to the US and some of the modern-day American nomads they met. However, this is no simple travelogue, for within the images appear crystalline forms that hover over temporary homes, inspired by quartz rocks that the artists found in Arizona, and suggestive of a mysterious sci-fi presence in the desert landscape.

The sculptural work unites this interest in the nomadic lifestyle with the couple's fixed home in Coed Gwynant, Wales, where they are developing an arboretum - a new, ambitious gardening project that has replaced the Birmingham allotment as the backbone of their art. The arboretum is also fed by their travels, with new species of trees added from around the world, including Redwoods collected from the US. The Venice sculpture is one of two identical works (the twin is in the arboretum), constructed from local trees that blew down earlier this year. Designed as an echo of the wooden domes on the house-truck that first inspired their visit to the US, they also incorporate panels of multi-coloured glass in a nod towards the crystalline, sci-fi motifs of their installation work.

As these works suggest, the Morisons' art is born of enthusiasm and a desire for exploration and discovery. These traits, which could in some senses be seen as naive, are not hidden within the finished artworks; rather, the artists' personal experiences are central to it, forming a narrative, never clearly fiction or fact, that runs throughout. Like Victorian adventurers, their work speaks of an innocent excitement about the minutiae of the world, marred by neither cynicism nor world-weary attitudes. Instead, they project the image of a grand, unpredictable adventure, one they seem eager for us to join.