Scott Rogers

scottmlrogers [at] gmail.com

Bio

Utilising sculpture and expanded forms of publishing, Scott Rogers is predominantly interested in the paradoxical relationships between humans, nonhumans, and land. Rogers was born in Mohkinstsis Treaty 7 Calgary, Canada, and lives in Glasgow, Scotland. Recent projects have been produced with Koraï Project Space (Nicosia, CY), Kunstverein München (DE), Ivory Tars (Glasgow), Collective (Edinburgh, SCO), the Kamias Triennial (Manila, PH), and KW Institute for Contemporary Art (Berlin, DE). With Will Holder, Scott co-edited “Recognition”, the 14th issue of the journal FR DAVID.

Scott acknowledges the generous support of Creative Scotland (2023), The Canada Council for the Arts (2021-22), the Hope Scott Trust (2022), and the British Council (2020).

Recent and Upcoming

Glasgow Project Room, solo, Nov 2023

Lapatsa, with Andreas Mallouris & Thelma Mavronikola, Koraï Project Space, Nicosia, CY, Oct 2023

Songs to the Sun, sound installation, Nuit Blanche Toronto, Sept 2023

Blackflash Magazine, artist project, winter 2024 issue

Atlas Arts, Traonach Corncrake research residency with Yasmin Nurming-Por, June 2023

Peripheral Alliances, publication, published by PlusX, 2023

Xeno-Canto (Songs to the Sun), online, Kunstverein München, 2023

Stress Test, New Scenario, 2023

Maquette, No Show Space, London, UK, group, cur. Robert Moon, November – December 2022

Appreciations, Koraï Project Space, Nicosia, CY, residency and solo, April – July 2022

Peripheral Alliances, Kunstverein München, residency, August – October 2021

Dwell Time, Ivory Tars, Glasgow, UK, solo, June 202

No Need to Hunt — We Just Wait for the Roadkill, interview with Paul Barsch, publication with TLTRPress, Berlin, DE, 2020

Kamias Triennial, Manila, PH, group, cur. Allison Collins, Patrick Cruz, Su-Ying Lee, February 2020

Trap Line, Gallery Malmo, Edinburgh, UK, solo, 2019

Work

Appreciations, Koraï Project Space, 09.06.22 – 16.07.2022

Since arriving here I’ve been going around on foot predominantly. I’ve been trekking out to Athalassa. It’s an unnerving feeling as the city changes from old town to motorway. On the route I started to reclaim pieces of vehicles from the roadside. There’s a confounding building on the way too: an abandoned luxury car showroom, with dust-covered Mercs inside. I said to myself, “What’s the opposite of an exorcism?”

At Akrotiri I circumnavigated the lake, getting fried by the desiccating sun, buzzed by a military helicopter. I stopped at a point and filled a bottle with briny water, hoping to distill it later. It’s enchanting how that same sun, under the right conditions, can also refresh.

One afternoon my flatmate was driving up to the mountains. I tagged along. We followed a ridgeline and collected shotgun casings. A few weeks later, we hiked around Mt. Olympos. One of its lower spurs was littered with gun husks. Each steel and plastic envelope was a mark of past violence, of struck down birds. I’m hoping one day these spent shells will become hosts instead.

I started to wander the Pedeios too, passing through the Municipal Park, with its anachronistic aviaries, and then along the watercourse all the way to Limni Magli. The Eucalyptus groves – yet another anachronism of Victoriana – contain many provisional cat villages. I’m sympathetic to these uncounted infrastructures, these enclaves carved out of property, that provide dignity and joy. All good with evading the mastery of spectral emperors.

Depreciation (Shades), found vehicle parts, pet bed, Lidl flyers, plastic tubs, found cushions, hand-woven mats (palm and reed).

Invitations, used shotgun casings, wood clay, bamboo, found materials

Release for Sleepwalkers (Peafowl, Golden Pheasant, Lady Amherst’s Pheasant, Crested Pigeon), felt-tip pen on air mail envelopes.

Offset, foil snack packets, aluminium tape.
Sun Trap, plastic tubs, plastic film, glass containers, water from five different sources in Cyprus.

Spirit Medium (Whistlejacket 1:1), PVC banner, cable ties. 292 cm x 246 cm. Offsite (abandoned luxury car showroom at Lemesou Ave. and Kyrenias)

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Invitations, Lucky, Inning am Ammersee / München, September 2021

Dear Lucky,

I didn’t know what to expect before I got here, but there’s a lot of common ground. Franzi showed me the rectangular hole cut into the garage door. The aperture allowed the swallows to make their nest and feed their young near the warmth of the kilns. When Desperado was shown in the courtyard the enormous screen blocked the birds’ access, and they were panicking. It turned out one of their babies had been trapped inside. The young one flew out the next morning, thankfully.

A week or so ago the local hedgehog visited. It was late at night, so we had a quiet meeting. It was snuffling through the grass, maybe finding Drago’s biscuits. I got a disused display case from the Kunstverein, and looked up how to make a hedgehog dwelling. The box is filled with grass and leaves, and then covered in earth. The entrance faces south.

Drago feared me at first, but now we’re on better terms. I learned how to ease him with non-threatening body language and keeping to his routine. He let me scratch his back yesterday. I like hearing the bell on his collar. It’s a greeting that precedes his appearance.

I just took a handful of acorns out of my pocket and put them on the desk. When I walk by an oak I collect them. They’ll be part of a new woodland someday, planted by Jays, in their habitual caching for winter. I’ll add them to a feeder—a station redirecting food toward future forests.

Thanks for having me,

Scott

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Behaving.That.Economies / Allowable.Bombshell.Irony (Two Calgarys), acrylic on board, weatherproof frame, burdock, frame: 84cm x 59.4cm, painting: 42cm x 29.7cm, 2020-2021

Nesting Stations, Treated timber posts, discarded Perspex label holders, animal fur, approx. 600cm x 150cm x 20cm, 2021

Depreciation (the Stack), foraged and found materials from around Glasgow southside (bricks, wood, moss, stone, broken clay pots, breeze blocks, lumber, rubber and plastic car parts etc.), approx. 220cm x 120cm x 120cm, 2021

Depreciation (Hotel), discarded artwork from 2015 Turner Prize (wooden skirting, screws), bamboo, 80cm x 45cm x 10cm, 2021

All works part of Dwell Time, solo exhibition with Ivory Tars, Glasgow. Photos: Patrick Jameson.

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Optimal Conditions (Kahuku Ashley VI), billboard, 469cm x 219cm, 2020-2021, photo: Katy Whitt

I spent a large part of last year in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. During the lockdown we began to host the caterpillars of the Kahuku, a butterfly that is familiarly called Monarch in the Americas. It was the end of summer in Aotearoa New Zealand, the days were getting colder. Having the caterpillars indoors gave them an extra bit of time. At a certain point, when they are large enough to become chrysalides, the larvae begin to wander. Sometimes they travel long distances. This one chose the arm of the sofa for its place. Ashley VI successfully hatched on June 2, 2020.

Huge thanks to Sarah and Elizabeth Rose, and Orlando for all the caterpillar care along the way.

Installed at the Bows, Mohkinstsis Calgary

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Social Attraction, hand-painted Chinese Crested Tern conservation decoys, mirror and steel display, A4 publication, 2020

“Is it possible, somehow, to imagine a benevolent trap? A loving trap? What would it mean to be cunning without cruelty?”

“The Art of Twists and Turns” essay by Samuel Forsythe

Social Attraction Reader

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Feeder Station 05, 2019, riding mower attachment, sunflower seeds, Dreamies™ cat treats

Feeder Station 06, 2019, plastic tub, suet, apple, braided “pick up after” bags

Hand Station, 2019, soap dispenser and wasp nest

Cycle, 2019, traditional Norwegian water pipe, plastic water pipe, fishing lure, strimmer cable, chew toy

Milk Station — For Harald, 2019, Petrol container, protein shaker lids

Feeder Station 02, 2018, poison trap, SIGG water bottle, water, dog bowl, RSPB “No Grow” bird food. Photo: Graeme Yule

Feeder Station 04, 2018, soap dog bowl, nettle leaves. Photo: Graeme Yule

Feeder Stations, ongoing series of sculptures speculating on the ambiguous relationships of care and violence between humans and animals

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Proposals for a Hunt Without Killing

FIELDWORK International Summer School 2019

Wild Orchards Will Overgrow Us, Hospitalfield, Arbroath.

Photos: Thomas Flanagan

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Mutualism, 2019, Perspex museum displays converted to bird feeders

Codec, 2019, acrylic on board (still from video recorded at a Perspex feeder)

Trap Line Press Release

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Scaled Bench—Costanera Sur (One-to-One-Approximated), Plaswood, steel, green anodised bolts, 200cm x 167cm x 80cm, 2018

Scaled Hide—Musselburgh Scrapes (Three-Fourths Reduced), all-weather melamine laminated birch ply, powder coated steel, hardware, 280cm x 230cm x 110cm, 2018

Transplants are versions of viewing infrastructures from urban nature reserves in Buenos Aires and Edinburgh that were replicated using alternative materials (melamine laminated plywood and Plaswood—a type of durable lumber made from recycled plastic). The works framed viewing scenarios inside and outside the gallery, responding to local climate and context.

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Common Birds, Oracle, Berlin

Earth Sciences

The 3 participants share an interest in ornithology and birds that have adapted to urban spaces. 3 photographers captured 3 birds on 3 separate continents over a weekend. Each group of images was given to one of the other photographers for selection. The resulting slideshow reflects on these examples of shared time. There is a reader to accompany the slide show.