We are delighted to be collaborating with Dubrek History in Derby to present History in Dust, a collection of recent works by Wirksworth resident and long-time friend of Haarlem Artspace, Geoff Diego Litherland.

This new body of work continues Litherland’s interest in using traditional materials and techniques to explore connections between himself and the natural environment.

Since 2016 Geoff has been redefining his artistic practice, seeking to delve deeper into the interconnected threads between painting and the environment. Using slow, pre-industrial craft processes to create natural canvas materials grown from the land and explored using traditional lime plasters with earth and cosmic pigments to create a series of frescos.

During this exploration of material and process the artist realised that he was beginning to use the materials of buon fresco, translated as ‘true fresh’, the traditional painting technique that pre-dates oil painting on linen. The technique of buon fresco only allows a short window of time where pigment may be added to the wet plaster. When applied correctly, the finely powdered pigment effectively impregnates itself within the surface of the plaster.

These lime-plaster works are process-led, using building materials and tools. There is no use of paintbrushes or gestures, nor the focus to engage in that language. Litherland’s purposeful removal of that language from the act of creation, allows the artist’s involvement and use of materials to act as a more effective conduit for the processes and metaphors the work explores.

The work provides an opportunity for Litherland to explore different materials – pigments, sand and lime – and their historical relationship to his locality of the Derbyshire Dales, where these materials have been extracted from the landscape for centuries. For the dark ‘crater’ spots on the surfaces Geoff looks further afield, using pigment derived from meteorites.

In his process, distorted grids are made by casting hemp nets over the wet plaster and allowing the pigments to fall onto and through them to create drifts on the surface of the work.

History in Dust attempts to capture the ethereal and ephemeral qualities of that which makes up the emptiness of space. Using earth-based and extra-terrestrial pigments in these compositions creates a built-in, metaphorical meaning of interconnectedness.

Live event
Fri 07 Mar

6—9pm

Mon 5-10pm

Tues-Sat 11-11pm

Sun 12-8pm

Dubrek Studios

67 Bridge Street

Derby DE1 3LB