Robyn Sands

Robyn Sands is an artist based in Glasgow. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Art from The Glasgow School of Art in June 2020.

Sands explores the relationships between human beings and the natural landscape, often referencing Psychogeography. Immersing herself into the environment (using strategies derived from Walking Art Practices), she deploys multiple mediums to comprehend the symmetries, repetitions and characteristics that are often overlooked in nature.

Sands often begin by visiting a specific natural landscape and making a (partially visual) travel journal to document her physical and mental experience of the space. These journals are evidence of her presence within the natural landscape—and also act as an archive of forms to utilize in the studio, when making her prints, objects and installations.

The artist views her works as unfinished inventories of fragments: drawings, objects, prints and paintings. Working with natural substances and fabric, Sands makes performative gestures that leave a trace: soil, paint and drawing medium delineate the actions she imposes on the material. Each ‘fragment’ is manipulated (through mark-making, casting, folding, and draping), and the collections of fragments are arranged into conceptually layered installations. These immersive objects are intended to invite the viewer to move in and around the space.

Sands regards her work as a conversation, a vocabulary and philosophy of landscape, a way to understand and communicate her experience of the specific world(s) she inhabits.