A NEW exhibition in Thurso Art Gallery brings masterly painting techniques together with haunting imagery of Auschwitz prisoners to create a powerful show.

Memorial is an ongoing project with elements that artist Peter White has been working on for a number of years. It is an exhibition of interconnecting themes, including large and small paintings, graphite drawings, text-based work and a project called the Memorial Stones.

"For me trying to explain what I do is like a one-dimensional thing that can be difficult to answer but if we take these drawings [of various executed prisoners from camps and prisons], the subjects have been stripped down to this very thin memory that is a photograph. The weight of history sits behind it but all that remains of the person is this photograph."

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For the past 15 years the artist has been making small graphite drawings from prisoner identity photographs. The photographs were taken by the authorities at Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, Lubyanka secret police headquarters in Moscow and Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

"These prisoners had almost everything taken from them – their homes, their families, their possessions, their names, their hair, their lives. In some cases this thin photograph appears to be all that remains as evidence of a person’s existence and raises questions of identity and history."

Speaking at the opening of the show, revered Sutherland-based art critic Ian McKay – former editor of Contemporary Art magazine – commented on how the touring exhibition benefited from the shape and size of the gallery space in Thurso.

"When it was shown in Ullapool there were many angles, vestibules and alcoves but this is a rectangular space and I think it actually helps the work a lot," he said. "It's good to be able to step back and view the work from a distance but his paintings are also very detailed and we can get close to see these too."

He went on to laud the exhibition as being "really powerful" in not just a visual sense but within the context of the social and historical aspects portrayed by the artist. "I met Peter at his Ullapool show and he's an artist that interests me a lot."

An integral component of the show and its visual impact is its layout in the Thurso gallery and to this end Peter works with Christine Morrison who helped co-install the paintings and objects.

"Last year, when he had the show in Ullapool, I helped install it and we had various areas for the elements to be viewed from within," Christine said. "When we saw the floor-plan for the Thurso Gallery we created these spaces within spaces and even utilised the corners by attaching wood."

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The paintings are complemented by a series of small stones that are painted on – the Memorial Stones. The idea behind the Memorial Stones project was born three years ago after Peter was climbing Cul Beag, a hill north of Ullapool that his father had walked in life but never made it to the top of and where some of his ashes were scattered 20 years ago.

Peter picked up a stone, took it home and painted on it. He intends to return the stone to Cul Beag in memory of his father. From this action the project has grown – now there are many stones, from many hills, in memory of many people. The stones have originated from Scottish hills and from Palestine. These stones will also be returned. It is the intention that some painted stones will be placed on Brims Hill near Scrabster as a small external part of the exhibition.

The exhibition contains numerous references to "vessels" and the emptiness of these which is seen within simple objects such as a garment, a bowl, a flower bud without petals and even a skull which acted as a vessel for who and what we once were.

There is a haunting poetry running through Memorial that make this a must-see exhibition in the arts calendar.

Entry is free and the show runs until August 21 at the Thurso Art Gallery in the town's library. For opening times visit www.highlifehighland.com/thurso-art-gallery/

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