Visual Art
SCULPTURE
JANNIS KOUNELLIS: WORKS
1 958-2005
Edinburgh College of Art, Sun 14 Aug—Sun 18 Sep; Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Sat 13 Aug-8 Jan 06
One of the key figures of postwar Italian art (although he was born in Greece in 1936, he moved to Rome at the age of 20), Jannis Kounellis’ work is shown for the first time in Scotland. Central to the show is a piece, on long term loan at the Gallery of Modern Art, which is so big it is being displayed in ECA’s sculpture court. In this, a series of black steel crosses advance across a carpet of Middle Eastern rugs towards a hat and coat suspended from a meathook - a signature trampled everyman of Kounellis’ work.
Elsewhere 3 new work (untitled, as are all of his pieces), will be displayed alongside a series of paintings and sculptures at the Gallery of Modern Art - this one featuring sheets of lead placed between the gallery windows, in front of which will hang coloured strips of glass.
‘What Kounellis builds up is a dialogue within the work - a juxtaposition of hard and soft material,’ explains Keith Hartley deputy director of SNGNA. ‘He’ll place steel next to something organic, and often the organic material will have some relation to human energy and imagination. He never says exactly what the materials equal but, while the work can have a tremendous impact physically, it also sets off longer-lasting associations reverberating in the mind.’
(David Pollock)
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INSTALLATION KATE OWENS - GATES OF ADES 5th Floor, The Tun, Holyrood Road, until Sat 24 Sep .00
Kate Owens has a thing for foodstuffs. of the cheaper. nastier klllti. Past \.'~.iorks have had greasy processed cheese sltces pressed into mosaic columns. and salty reformed potato snacks aping bamboo prints. or painstakingly arranged into Arabesgue door ('lecoratrons.
Now. with “Gates of Ades'. Owens is making pop art as in fi//\,. On the fifth floor of the Tun. bottles Of cheapo cherry. lemon. Irrne and or'angeai i'e are wedged tight into a lattice pressed up against the floor to ceiling ‘.'-./:ndoi.‘.'s. Edged in deepest cola black. the 'ades filter daylight. forming a glen-ring arrangement that calls to mind an oriental carpet. or pixels on a screen.
As ever. Owens Sidesteps the jokey hokurn of her deliberately nafl materials to make something really rather beautiful. though there's something menacing about these Gates. too - perhaps Ades is missing an "H"? Beautiful as the bottles are. we know they contain a poisonous potage of l; ~rtuiitber's. artificial sweeteners and. of course. colourings. These defiantly unnatural shades mock the fruits they imitate: rrnpossrbly over-ripe. signalling a poisonous sugar rush no harvested thing could hope to provrde. There's another threat. too the srritiirier' Sun might rust pop those pop bottle tops and cause a yen; sticky explosion of chemically-infused slime.
That's Kate Owens' trick —< turning something Vile into something beautiful, then into something Vile again. (Jack Mottram)
84 THE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE ‘ ‘ tZ-t Aug Qtiflf,
PAINTING AND DRAWING GAUGUIN’S VISION National Gallery of Scotland, until Sun 2 Oct .0.
Inc- parntrng that launched a thousand raised eyebrows and new works is the centrepiece for this show. It was pa:nted by Gauguin when he was hung in the Breton Village of Pont Aven, a popular retreat for art.sts. The dangerous f!'rt red. canned up by a curved tree trunk and women praying in traditional dress was risky business.
The shows focused approach and arm -- to examine the .nfluence and significance of this painting — :t is nigth ambitious. Firstly we are shown how Brittany had been a base for many art:sts in the last half of the 1.9th century -- modest and subdued images of Breton. peasants in one room. Secondly. we're :ntroduced to Gauguin. and his peers. looking at some of the stylistic developments that red up to Gaugurn's revelation. So far. so coherent.
But then. when the climax of the show should be luminescent and ()th'll'lg}. it is cluttered with confusion. Surrounding the picture are other assembled works. relating to it in different ways but it's hard to work out :rnrnediateiy why. The main contention. over "The Vision' was with contemporary Ernile Bernard. who believed Gauguin. had stolen many elements of his Breton Women in the Meadow Pardon. at Pont-Aven‘. This piece hangs near to 'The Vision' and the {l(l(:()ll‘.()£1l‘.\,'i'lg text works out some kind of compromise. It feels like a bit of a let down somehow.
That the show has been meticuloust researched is unquestioned and the il"ki3 and assembled works fascinating. but the ordering. editing and storytelling obscure that clarity of thought. (Ruth Hedges)