Biography

Astrid is a qualified Visual Artist with a love of materials and wandering. She enjoys the process of collaborating and learning and is passionate about sharing that with others. Astrid has led people, of all generations on projects that use creative skills to question, engage and challenge with past heritage, contemporary culture and anticipate potential futures.

Charles Baudelaire's term 'Flaneurs' describes the artists, writers and thinkers such as John Ruskin, Joseph Beuys, Francis Alÿs, John Berger, Marc Augé, Iain Sinclair etc. who walked, trespassed, observed, considered and recorded what they saw, experienced and felt. Metaphorically attached to the coattails of these creators Astrid is inspired to wander and record her perspective of Scotland.

Astrid's perspective may not be recognised by all but could be a “Not for Tourists Guide” to places that are seen as commonplace, insignificant or even inaccessible. This is not a romantic or sentimental notion but is based on the understanding that history and our environment continues to shape who we are and who we will become.

Her work tries to provoke memories, a curiosity revealing, at an emotional level, the importance of certain places to previous generations. By investigating and noting these places we may gain insight and feelings into the lives, stories, and histories of past travellers.

Working with the dualities places/non-places, rural/urban, significant/insignificant, barriers/access etc. Astrid has concluded that these terms are not opposites but symbiotic expressions and conversations essential in providing layers of colour and texture to an otherwise flat, monochromatic world.

Art inspired by non-places/places, edge-lands, barriers etc, will, she hopes, encourage others to re-engage with what was thought to have been lost, remember what had been forgotten and see again what we had learned to ignore.