Details
| First Name | Sarah |
| Last Name | Darling |
| Username | sarahd |
| Website | |
| Region | Argyll & Bute |
| Disciplines | Applied Arts and Craft, Photography |
| Themes | Abstract, Environment, Landscape, Narratives |
Statement
| Statement | Living in Mull and after years of regular photography commissions, I now experiment with more abstract approaches to creating work. I taught myself to weave during lockdown and started using photographs in this process, appreciating the additional textural structure and narrative. A relatively recent convert to cold water swimming, my current work uses woven and collaged photographs taken whilst swimming in west coast sea, lochs and quarries. Themes of reorientation, transformation and connection are explored. |
Biography
| Biography | Sarah is a photographer and artist, documenting projects, events, and performance. Over the years she has developed her own style, telling stories and capturing moments of quiet intimacy. Alongside this she also experiments with a more abstract fine art approach to creating work. During lockdown she taught herself to weave on a small loom and started using images from her archive. The photographs were deconstructed and then woven to create new narratives. More recently she was introduced to cold water swimming. It quickly became addictive. Being a photographer she naturally found a way to take a camera with her; this has led to her current project. Photographic images captured in the sea, lochans and quarries near where she lives, are taken apart and then physically woven back together in such a way that speaks to the experience of reorientation, transformation and connection that cold water swimming offers. Her interest in exploring the physical boundaries of the photograph creates work of a more tangible and tactile nature which she hopes will lead to a deeper, more personal connection between the viewer and the work. Sarah has recently been shortlisted for the Scottish Landscape Awards 2025, and currently has work at An Tobar Arts Centre and Calgary Gallery, Isle of Mull. EXHIBITIONS: 2025 Scottish Landscape Awards, Kirkcudbright Galleries Life With Water – SSA in collaboration with An Tobar, 30×30 work selected for display alongside main exhibition 2024 WOVEN, Foxyard Studios, Suffolk Scottish Landscape Photographer of the Year (online) – commended Let’s Talk About, collaboration with Mull Youth Theatre and Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Open Studios, An Tobar Arts Centre 2023 Highland Games Open Art Exhibition, Tobermory 1st Prize in 2D category Drawn, An Tobar Arts Centre Open Exhibition 2021 Hidden, An Tobar Arts Centre Open Exhibition Bones (photographs & video), An Tobar Arts Centre 2020 Pandemonium, An Tobar Arts Centre Open Exhibition 2019 Yellow, An Tobar Arts Centre Open Exhibition 2018 Aros Revisited (photography & video), An Tobar Arts Centre Found, An Tobar Arts Centre Open Exhibition 2017 re.evolution, An Tobar Arts Centre Open Exhibition 2016 Focas, work celebrating music, drama and art on Mull Luminate Photography Challenge 2016 pop up exhibitions across Scotland ICE, An Tobar Arts Centre Open Exhibition 2015 Common Ground, An Tobar Arts Centre. Work in Emma Herman Smith’s retrospective A Life In Art, Edinburgh’s Gayfield Creative Spaces Behind the Scenes, solo exhibition at Calgary Café 2014 Ilana Halperin’s Learning to Read Rocks workshop in ‘Clach Pàpear Siosar’ An Tobar Arts Centre Image selected for ‘The Environment of the Hebrides; what matters to you’ An Lanntair, Stornoway 2012 Images & video in Emma Herman Smith’s Forest Partners Project exhibition at An Tobar Arts Centre 2011 Conversation, collaboration with artist Jenny Escritt, An Tobar Arts Centre |