Suzanne Holtom ‘And Hills Bore Scars’

I am a huge fan of the New Walsall Art Gallery, and often pop along to see new exhibitions, particularly if they feature local artists. Last month I went to see one that really interested me, as it featured local landscapes seen in a completely different way. The Suzanne Holtom exhibition ‘And Hills Bore Scars‘ is a stunning exploration of key sites around Walsall and Dudley described as ‘geosites’. The New Walsall Art Gallery explain:-

The Black Country geosites of Barr Beacon, Streetly and Wren’s Nest, Dudley have been key to her most recent work. Ancient limestone formations and more recent collapsed structures from mining and industry provide rich visual inspiration. But also, the sweep of pylons, the silent sentinels that extend across the land near Barr Beacon.

Suzanne returned to the Midlands during the pandemic, when she lost her father, and much of the work does have a very personal feel to it. There are works linked to a 1970’s TV series ‘Escape into Night’, a series that Suzanne describes as terrifying. This was a series that had been filmed in Barr Beacon, and obviously had a profound effect on Suzanne, who remembered it all these years later. The Escape series of paintings and sketches that are inspired by this series as dark and eerie, and really feel unsettling. I can’t remember this series, but it seems to have the same vibe as those awful public information films that had a similar effect on me. I’ve never forgotten them, and know I am not alone in this.

The Escape Series

And Hills Bore Scars

These are paintings that inspire awe. As someone who was a little scared of the giant, almost alien like, pylons when I was younger, these resonate with me. The geosites have been created through geology, through our history and also through the industry that has dominated Midland sites since the industrial resolution. I love the colours, which almost echo the furnaces and fires that used to span the landscapes.

The works also contemplate bodily forms, land masses, histories, patterns of energy and industry, layered materiality and shifting terrains. The idea of scale is important, epic themes can collide with the trivial or commonplace but what is always conveyed is how human activities impact upon and interact with the landscape.