Installation view at Gallery Fisk
Lucas Ferguson’s main interest lies in the often tenuous relationship between the natural and artificial worlds. His practice takes form through different mediums, processes and styles. Exploring the human interaction between the material and natural worlds, he leaves no stone unturned in his investigation of these systems.
At Galleri Fisk the artist turns his attention towards the notion of simulation in tourism, by reproducing the Fairy Glen, a Scottish tourist attraction. By creating his own simulation, Ferguson wishes to underscore the tendency to prefer a copied site to an original one. As one enters the Gallery space they find themselves overwhelmed by two hues of the colour pink, one saturated and synthetic, the other fleshy and natural. A carpet covered by plaster rocks occupies the middle of the room, replicating the scattered rocks, and grass of the Fairy Glen. The audience is invited to move and play with the plaster rocks as tourists do at the original location. Photographs of the Glen line the walls, reminiscent of popular images found in gift store, with the back room of the gallery acting as an actual tourist shop, with souvenir items available for purchase.
With this shameless reproduction of the Fairy Glens the artist is invoking Jean Baudrillard’s concepts of simulation and the simulacra: “It is no longer a question of imitation, nor duplication, nor even parody. It is a question of substituting the signs of the real for the real”. This installation does not transport the viewer to the Glens of Scotland, but towards its simulation as the intended destination.
Furthermore, the role sightseeing plays in the experience of tourism, reveals a world that is simultaneously natural, human, genuine and fake. The tourist seeks to experience a simulated nature, avoiding the world nature resides in.
2014