IAN WESTACOTT and RAYMOND ARNOLD: Double Vision

There is more than ‘double vision’ in the combined etchings of Raymond Arnold and Ian Westacott. There is a synergy in the work of the two long-time friends. The work is an on-going project in which Westacott and Arnold produce a copperplate each, and then print them on top of one another; a stereoscopic process that deepens our feeling of space, time and dimensions. They make us look afresh at Arnold and Westacott’s subjects: trees, sculpture, glimpses of old gardens, a suit of armour… signs of life caught by a double set of eyes.

These echoes of the past are further enhanced by the magic of the etching process - the permanence of the etched mark, a moment caught, but somehow more when printed. Ink sinks deeply into the paper in a copperplate etching and this creates an almost three dimensional effect that is mesmeric.

The joy of co-creation is also expressed, and the importance of friendship and the fragility of our world. Arnold and Westacott first met at College in Australia in the 1970s and since then have gone out of their way to meet once a year to draw, print and make collaborative work. This exhibition is the result of a forty-year artistic kinship and it is hugely exciting to show it at Kilmorack Gallery.