Jason Hicklin | Out of Darkness: Recent Work from Pembrokeshire

10 February - 13 March 2022

The Pembrokeshire coast is one of the most varied, dramatic and celebrated coastlines in the world, and to anyone with even a passing familiarity with Jason’s work, its appeal to him should be obvious. For the last two years, he has been exploring the land and the islands situated off it, on foot and by boat, tracing every contour of its cliffs, sketching its promontories and outcrops and the ever shifting, immense body of water which seems to constantly threaten the very existence of the land itself. Out of Darkness is the result of this endeavour. It is quite possibly the finest testament to date of Jason’s intrepidity as an explorer of both landscape and the etching process.

 

This exhibition is comprised of work produced from a number of journeys, and despite the unity of subject and Jason’s honed style, there is a striking variation, both across and within the individual series. Most prominently, there is the range of tone, the heavy darkness of the rock, the delicate light reflecting off the water, and even the occasional subtle trace of colour. While some prints demonstrate the crisp delineation unique to the etched line, in others an obscuring mist lends an almost abstract quality to the work. But never are we presented with an image devoid of sublimity as the term was first formulated. Jason allows us to witness these sights for what they truly are: a dangerous, fearful beauty.