FESTIVAL VISUAL ART | Previews and Reviews
PRIVATE VIEW THE HONOURABLE KEVIN HARMAN
Kevin Harman wants his most interesting audience members to become part of his top-secret show
Where did the ‘Honourable’ title come from? I didn’t like the name Kevin, so I had to come up with something that distracted from it. ‘Honourable’ comes from speaking to a lawyer friend of mine and having a laugh about some of his clients — one guy kept writing to everybody as the Honourable, and using a load of other titles, which I just loved. But I honour what I say I’m going to do so I guess I kind of am. I’m going to start feeding it outside of the art world as well and see how far I get. What can you tell us about your Edinburgh Art Festival show? I’ve been working on four or five projects — they require a degree of covert delivery so I can’t say too much. Once the space is open in August, folk will come round for the open studio and they’ll be able to discuss the work and have an input into how the projects go ahead. I’ll be hosting a few events after hours as well, with an invited audience to be part of the project I’m building in the studio at the moment. We’ll pick the most interesting people who come to the studio, and I’ll invite them back for this larger event on two evenings a week, which should be quite funky.
What are you looking forward to seeing during the festival? This year there’s GENERATION, so there’s absolute art overload and maybe a bit of the spectacle has been taken off the festival. But personally I’m looking forward to seeing Craig Coulthard’s work at Trinity Apse, and the Jim Lambie show at the Fruitmarket. I helped put one of his floors down when I was a nipper at art college — really inspirational. There’s so much going on in Scottish art right now, there’s definitely something there.
(Interview by Rhona Taylor) ■ Old Ambulance Depot, 1–31 Aug (Wed, Fri & Sun), noon–4pm, free.
90 THE LIST FESTIVAL 31 Jul–7 Aug 2014
P H O T O © T O M N O L A N
REVIEW ROSS SINCLAIR: 20 YEARS OF REAL LIFE Inspiring mixed-media exhibition on Calton Hill ●●●●●
Twenty years ago, Ross Sinclair had the words ‘Real Life’ tattooed on his back. Since then, his work has been an overt process of trying to figure out what these words mean. In this GENERATION show, there appear to be no conclusions, but there’s certainly a sense that Glasgow School of Art graduate and lecturer Sinclair hasn’t chosen interests that are external to him to compile this work. Crammed into the vaulting old City Observatory dome at the top of Calton Hill, it seems explicit that these mounds of pop cultural ephemera are integrally tied to Sinclair’s own self-image, much like the tattoo his younger self chose. The space is crowded. On one wall a large banner curves, reading ‘100 Years of Real Life’ and
marking out dates from 1994 to 2094. Sinclair and his tattoo are unlikely to be around then, but in the mechanics of this show a sense of immortality is hinted at. Surrounding the banner and crowding it in on the wall are the results (or possibly demonstration attempts painted by Sinclair) of daily ‘paint what you think’ sessions using the materials provided. ‘The best thing I ever made was a mess,’ says one, tellingly.
Elsewhere stands a podium decked with instruments and a stage with more guitars and drums plugged in. This sub-installation is the nub of the project: the instruments will be given away to 20 teenagers who commit to form five bands at the end of the exhibition, with Sinclair and others mentoring the groups afterwards. It’s a lovable and certainly useful idea, which clearly plays upon Sinclair’s thoughts on his own mortality and the purpose of his work. What is his art for? This show suggests that we create to encourage others to create. (David Pollock) ■ Collective Gallery, 556 1264, until 31 Aug, free.
P H O T O C O U R T E S Y R S A © S T U A R T M C A D A M
REVIEW RSA: OPEN DIALOGUES Group show from six New Contemporaries artists ●●●●●
It’s six years since the annual RSA Student Exhibition morphed into New Contemporaries, a selected show for new graduates chosen from all Scotland’s art schools. As part of GENERATION, the RSA is showing new work by six of those artists, one for each year since New Contemporaries began. What emerges is a dialogue around landscape. The
highly textured abstract paintings of Eva Ullrich are suggestive of weather and the elements, while Ade Adesina describes the encroachment of the urban and its impact on the environment in his superb etchings. Geri Loup Nolan demonstrates something of her practice in a ‘distilled reworking’ of her studio, a set of new collages and an artist’s book inspired by a recent residency in Ireland.
Johnny Lyons’ perfomance work includes detonating
a box of fireworks in front of himself and smoking down the barrel of a rifle, while Stuart McAdam’s work (pictured) is a series of journeys documented by photographs, films and objects. (Susan Mansfield) ■ Royal Scottish Academy, 624 6556, until 31 Aug, free.