SUNLIGHT: Roger Ackling is the first survey exhibition of the work of British artist Roger Ackling (1947–2014), one of the most quietly influential artists of the late twentieth century.

The exhibition is curated by Amanda Geitner and is developed in partnership with the Artist’s Estate, Annely Juda Fine Art, Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery, the Henry Moore Foundation and the Pier Arts Centre.

For forty years Roger Ackling made work with driftwood and debris found along the seas edge. Using a hand-held magnifying glass, he focused sunlight through the lens onto the wood, burning marks into the surface from left to right, as if writing text. By this simple and meditative means he transformed discarded materials into beautiful sculptural objects.

Ackling visited Orkney in the summer of 2008, collecting driftwood on various beaches around the county and transforming it into exquisite artworks. He was particularly interested in how local industry, such as fishing and farming, is reflected in the debris and every-day objects found and how the weather influences their surfaces describing some of his Orkney finds as ‘sand blasted, battered, slowly smoothed away.’

In autumn 2009 Ackling returned to Orkney for his exhibition Brought Back, displayed at the Pier Arts Centre. Ackling described the genesis of the exhibition title: ‘Brought Back refers not just to where the materials have been found and then shown, but also to the concept of what has been rejected, thought worthless - being raised by working with it into an artefact.’

Roger Ackling was one of a generation of British artists (alongside his friends and contemporaries Richard Long and Hamish Fulton) that helped re-define contemporary art in the late 1960s. Their practice places as much importance on the labour of making the work as the creation of a finished object and has an emphasis on working outside traditional gallery spaces.

Ackling’s work was a key influence on architect Neil Gillespie of Reiach and Hall Architects, Edinburgh, in the conception for the design for the re-developed Pier Arts Centre. Gillespie wrote in an essay, included in sleeper publication The Pier Arts Centre-The Black House in 2007 ‘Roger Ackling’s work involves the burning of delicate lines into a found piece of wood. Through his work we saw how the new building could be indelibly etched into the existing fabric of the town.’

SUNLIGHT references key exhibitions at distinct stages of Ackling’s career. His work is shown alongside materials from the artist's extensive archive and a film of interviews with fellow artists and students such as Tony Cragg, Maggi Hambling, Dean Hughes and David Nash examining the impact and legacy of Ackling’s practice.

A fully illustrated hardback catalogue accompanies the exhibition and is available to buy in the Pier Arts Centre shop, priced £20.00.

SUNLIGHT was first exhibited at Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery in 2024, followed by the Henry More Foundation 4 April – 22 June this year prior to coming to Stromness.

The exhibition will be on display at the Pier Arts Centre from 12 July - 1 November 2025.

, Culture & Heritage, Visit Orkney, Arts, Crafts & Design, Culture & Events, Stromness