Colorado Art RanchPhoto: David Peterson
 

 

benjaminShirley Tipping

Photographer
Glasgow, Scottland

www.shirleytipping.com

Shirley Ann Tipping was born, and spent her formative years, in Liverpool, England. She moved to Scotland in 1992 and graduated from the Glasgow School of Art in 1996 with a BA hons degree, specialising in Fine Art Photography. She now lives in Glasgow. During term time Shirley works as a part time school librarian, and spends her summers in photographic pursuit of the American West.

Shirley’s work combines her love of photography, western light, and landscape, her fascination with western movies, movie sets, and ghost towns, her obsession with old wooden structures, and her interest in the history of the west, with the eternal question of the survival of the west as we know it?

Shirley has been fortunate to secure the Salida residency with the Colorado Art Ranch during the summer of 2009, and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation  Fellowship in Taos, New Mexico during the summer/Autumn of 2008. Both of these experiences have had a profound effect on Shirley’s work.

Having had various exhibitions throughout the UK, and having been the recipient of several Scottish grants and awards, this is Shirley’s first International show.


About the DIA Project
This is my ninth year of an ongoing photography project based in the American West. Over this period the work has led me on a journey through six western states, weaving in and out of decades of the west’s transient past.

From this past I have a particular interest in old ghost towns, ranch houses, pioneer dwellings and mines. Not only their aesthetics, the relationship to the surrounding environment, their history, and abandonment.

I am drawn by the vastness of the west, the raw beauty, and in contrast what can be seen as a harsh and inhospitable land. The quality of light, the intensity of the desert sun, and the harsh shadows it casts on old, gnarled, wooden structures sitting abandoned in the landscape. Amongst the former glory I see a haunting form of beauty, as the ephemeral timber structures collapse back into the land that gave them life.

I am interested in what is real and what we perceive to be real, for example, the meeting point of the celluloid west and the geographical west.

During the summer of 2009 my journey led me to the mineral rich and cattle rearing past of Colorado. I spent a month in residence in Salida, combing the surrounding area for old mines, ranch houses and pioneer cabins lying dormant to the elements. Some view these remains as a scar on the landscape, others a preservation of history. Whatever your inclination, we are left with the question, what role does the past play in the present and future of the state?

My work poses questions for the viewer, but leaves them to their own conclusions.

 

33 IDEAS!, an exhibit of art, writing and ideas
March 15-June 15, 2010

Denver International Airport

DIA PostcardThis exhibit showcases visual and literary artists associated with Colorado Art Ranch as presenters, artists in residence, or Nomads at one or more Artposia. The artists were selected because they use their passion, skills, knowledge, and talent to ask questions and react to the world around them. The work, in turn, inspires us to ask questions and view the world from different perspectives.

33 IDEAS! is on display at the Ansbacher Hall: The Art of Colorado, on the walkway between the terminal and A Gates before the security screening. The hall is accessible for everyone’s enjoyment.

For more information contact DIA Art Program at
(303) 342-2521 or visit www.flydenver.com/art

 

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