On at Fire Station Creative from 11 January until 3 February, ‘Korean Dreams’, by Montreal-born photographer Nathalie Daoust, plays on the concepts of reality and fantasy. Daoust travelled to North Korea for this project, capturing scenes of one of the world’s most secretive societies. Many of her photographs are candid, and were taken using a remote trigger to avoid detection. Daoust’s darkroom method also mimics the way information is transferred in North Korea – it is stifled until the truth becomes ‘lost’ in the process.  A graduate of the Cegep du Vieux in Canada, Daoust launched into the public consciousness in 1999 with the surreal series New York Hotel Story. She is the recipient of numerous awards and her work has been extensively showcased worldwide. She says, ‘Since my very first experiments in photography I have been fascinated by human behaviour and its various realities, by the ever-present human desire of living in a dream world. The aesthetic of my new project continues this visual exploration at the border between dream and reality, yet this time it embraces escapism of a country and the act of losing oneself within it.’

 
Also opening in January is Dunfermline artist Alan Grieve’s latest show, ‘Lost All Reason and Direction’. The exhibition, which runs from 19-26 January at Tent Gallery in Edinburgh, is a collection of work by Grieve and Rowan Paton. It explores contemporary landscape – rural, urban and imagined – employing humour, language and image .
Rowan Paton’s work explores materiality, mark making, colour and language. Employing two and three dimensional practices, low tech media, appropriated and self-made imagery, she creates imagined spaces. Paton graduated from Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) with a BA in Drawing and Painting and studied for two years at Yale University USA, gaining an MFA in Printmaking & Painting. Rowan was recently elected as a professional member of Visual Arts Scotland (VAS) and Society of Scottish Artists (SSA). 
Alan Grieve has an ear for language and a predilection for the strange. Like a latter day bard, he explores through his work the unfamiliar turn of phrase or gem of information. He trained in Fine Art at ECA & Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee, completing both an undergraduate and a Masters degree, and has since exhibited his work all over Scotland. Alan established Workspace Dunfermline in 2011, where he combines his day job working as a hairdresser with his activities in contemporary art. In the evening, the chairs and mirrors of the salon are cleared away, to become a small art gallery, open for exhibitions, discussions and community events.

LOST ALL REASON AND DIRECTION is on daily from 10am until 4pm at Tent Gallery. The gallery is at 78 West Port, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh, E1H 2LE