Loch Ness 1976

Editor: Barry Flanagan's line etching, "Loch Ness," feels so sparse, almost like a memory fading away. What do you see in this piece beyond a simple landscape? Curator: I see a commentary on representation itself. Loch Ness, already a site of myth, is further abstracted. What does it mean to depict a place already defined by the unseeable, the monstrous, the unsubstantiated? Editor: So, the sketchiness isn't a flaw, but a deliberate choice to mirror the legend's elusiveness? Curator: Precisely. Flanagan uses the visual language of absence to explore themes of collective belief and the construction of reality. Does the bareness invite viewers to project their own expectations onto the landscape, much like the monster itself? Editor: I hadn't thought of it that way. It makes you wonder about how much of what we "see" is really just what we expect to see. Curator: Exactly. It's a powerful reminder of the subjective nature of perception. Editor: Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind!