Out of Britain/ Landscape and the Metaphysical

This series of international lectures, gallery talks and artist seminars accompanying the British Council’s touring exhibition Out of Britain 2012. The Out of Britain talks and the exhibition have been hosted by public and private galleries across Saudi Arabia including Riyadh National Museum, Riyadh, Athr Gallery, Jeddah, Sultan Bin Abdel Aziz Science and Technology Center, Al Knobar. The exhibition includes seminal works by historic and contemporary artists. During Rayson’s visit he worked alongside Andrea Rose (Head of the Art Collection at the British Council) who also delivered gallery talks. They worked together during studio visits and discussions with artists groups across Saudi Arabia. This touring show builds upon Rayson’s projects The Voyage, The Everyday Fantastic and The Ship. Rayson presented his visual essay The Ship at Land and the Metaphysical – Land and Water Symposium Series, Plymouth University, July 2010. Rayson’s lectures draw on his research and practice into the tradition of landscape in the history of painting, its social and political roles and conditions, in contrast to the way in which artists utilize the genre of landscape as a site for personal expression and formal exploration. His gallery talks and visual presentations unfold the conventions of topographical documentation, constructed environments, romanticism, the vernacular, notions of the exotic, and our desire for visions of the sublime. Out of Britain will tour to Kuwait this coming Autumn, and Rayson is to deliver another series of lectures as he pursues his research on the positions and possibilities of landscape painting.