Taigh Chearsabhagh on North Uist  presents an exhibition of outstanding photography by accomplished New York photographer Barbara Yoshida from 11 March to 29 April 2006.  An amalgamation of two recent projects- Standing Stones & Moonlight and including work created during her 2005 european visit, Dark Skies is a celebration of timeless landscapes under skies not yet adulterated by artificial light. Ancient monoliths and natural rock formations, “where the earth meets the sky”, are explored through the medium of time-lapse photography producing a haunting, yet majestic, quality to these powerful images.

“In 2003 I pitched my tent next to the ancient Ring of Brodgar in Scotland and photographed from evening through the night until dawn. That was the beginning of this project, a series of images from Sweden to Corsica featuring various megalithic, standing stones.

There is a timeless quality about these stones that gives them enormous power. As Angus Peter Campbell puts it, “suddenly you realize that this stone you're gazing upon...was here before you came, and it will be here after you have gone, receiving the warm west wind, bowing before the terrible winter storms, coping, thrawn, surviving."

A stone is that from which we come, is that to which we go back, it's the earth itself. Isamu Noguchi

Photographing at night, with the stones against the night sky, emphasizes their shapes as well as the relationship between "figure and ground," between the focal object and its surroundings. The "star trails" add another element, that of time. They are a visual record of how much the earth has moved during the exposure, which can be 8 minutes or more than an hour. And the gravure process (the way the paper is pressed into the bitten plate) complements the texture of the stones.

“The otherness of stones and stars, like that of wild animals, is their deepest mystery, for they are not our products and their purposes are their own. They are the models for thinking our humbleness in the universe, and they are the key to the strangeness of ourselves.” Paul Shepard

Barbara Yoshida has had numerous exhibitions in countries around the world, including The Netherlands, Japan, Finland, Turkey, Egypt, Ukraine, Korea, Hungary, India, England, France, Scotland, Austria, Republic of China, Switzerland, Canada and Italy, as well as two one-person exhibitions in Poland during 2004 and a forthcoming one-person exhibition at Taigh Chearsabhagh in March/April 2006. In the United States, recent one-person shows include George B. Dorr Museum in Bar Harbor, Maine in 2003; Johnson County Community College; Arts Space in New York City in 2006.

For more information and images visit www.barbarayoshida.com

Photogravure and pigment inkjet print processes are both used in this limited edition series of 40 framed prints. A 30-page catalogue will be produced to accompany the exhibition. 

Dark Skies - A Taigh Chearsabhagh curated photographic exhibition by Barbara Yoshida showing from March 11 – April 29 2006.

For more information contact Andy Mackinnon, Arts Officer, Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum & Arts Centre. 01876 500 240, andy@taigh-chearsabhagh.org