Matt Saunders | Landscape V – VI

Saunders completes a series of landscape etchings that has evolved over almost a decade.

Upon completion of the series, Saunders explains how every print is caused by a desire to discover the unknown. At the core of each print the cinematic landscapes represent a longing for a distant place, whether it’s in time or place.

Reference to cinema is an essential pillar in Saunders’ art practice. The addition of Landscape V (Bamboo Forest) and Landscape VI (Night Pond) continues where Landscape IV (Zen Valley), 2019 left off, by drawing inspiration from Chinese filmmaker King Hu and his influential film Touch of Zen, 1970-71. In Hu’s universe the landscape takes on a leading role. In Landscape V (Bamboo Forest) Saunders wanted to capture and preserve the energy from an iconic battle scene in which the choreography of the characters fighting blends with the dense surroundings of bamboo trunks. In Saunders’ etching, the fighters are removed and instead the light and the way it cuts through the trees takes centre stage. On the contrary, Landscape VI (Night Pond) is inspired by a quiet moment in the film where the camera delves into a dark pond at night. It is a point of no return for the main characters, where pure imagination takes over. Common to both moments within the film is that the landscape engulfs or replaces the figures at key events.

Connections within the series become more apparent when viewed together. Saunders leaves all six landscapes devoid of people, emphasizing the profound role of scenery and setting. A dialectic play between light and darkness, well-known and unknown, reality and imagination, distance and closeness, arise within the series. Together, the series reflects the filmmakers that have had a profound impact on Saunders’ practice and how cinema can evoke a longing for the unknown and mysterious.