New Found Land is the result of a two-week residency at Gallery 72 to create a site-specific installation featuring different approaches to drawing. The title of the exhibit hints at the new creative territory Angus Galloway began exploring during the upheaval of the pandemic, and this opportunity has been a cathartic one, breaking out of solitary and private spaces. New Found Land is inspired by a two-year investigation into his grandfather John Dymond and his service during World War II on the Newfoundland, a Fiji Class destroyer in the Royal Navy.
Each drawing considers a distinct fragment of this history. Razzle Dazzle is an installation inspired by the camouflage designs created by artists using patterns with alternate rhythm motifs. Engine Room plunges us into the sputtering inner workings of the ship’s power source to confront the steel branches of coughing machinery.
Picture Day captures the seminal moment of the crew filling the decks of the ship; cones symbolize the loss of the individual’s identity in the blurry archival photographs uncovered during Galloway’s research. Armed with white charcoal, Wake explores the ephemeral path left in the ocean, and the organic forms that remain from its passage. Finally, Graveyard hints at the Newfoundland’s fate being sold for scrap and exposes the lifeless unbalanced giants in their final resting place before returning to a life as raw material.
