FESTIVAL VISUAL ART | Previews and Reviews
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REVIEW AMERICAN IMPRESSIONISM: A NEW VISION The influence of European impressionism on 19th-century American art ●●●●● It may lack something of the blockbuster appeal of the GENERATION shows but, in looking back at the American art scene of the late 19th century’s engagement with European impressionism, festivalgoers will at least be offered a traditional alternative to the slew of thoroughly contemporary Scottish works featured elsewhere.
PREVIEW ART LATE Contemporary art after dark at venues across the city )
Bringing together a mixture of specially programmed exhibitions, artist talks, live music and performance, Art Late is back to indulge audiences after opening hours.
Sorcha Carey, director of the Edinburgh Art Festival, remarks that ‘what makes Art Late so special (apart from the trolley bag filled with beer) is the real intensity and energy of the occasion.’
American Impressionism: A New Vision is a study With the geographical growth of the festival, Art
of influences as much as exponents, beginning with Mary Cassatt’s friendship with a Parisian set including Edgar Degas and Berthe Morisot, and following on with John Singer Sargent, Childe Hassan and others’ tutelage under Claude Monet. Each artist’s work is extensively represented, but it’s in the final of four themed segments – an investigation of latterday American subjects – that the show’s brief really comes alive. William Merritt Chase’s study of his wife and daughter on a path in Central Park, Dennis Miller Bunker’s idyllic view of a white cottage set in lush green grass and Hassan’s vivid reproductions of the Chicago World Fair and Commonwealth Avenue in Boston all ring with a sense of place and historic vibrancy. (David Pollock) ■ Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art Two, 624 6200, until 19 Oct, £8 (£6). 92 THE LIST FESTIVAL 31 Jul–7 Aug 2014 92 THE LIST FESTIVAL 31 Jul–7 Aug 2014
PREVIEW SUSAN HILLER: RE-SOUNDING New film based on cultural and cosmic phenomena
Re-Sounding combines audio effects from the Big Bang and other cosmic phenomena with stories told by people who think they have seen visitors from outer space, and also explores references to dreaming. ‘I’m interested in cultural phenomena, no matter how crazy or weird they seem,’ Hiller says. 'We don’t take dreaming seriously enough. It gives us two kinds of being, and some of these people are getting into that area without being mystics or mad. They’ve just had a surprising thing happen, and they’re desperately trying to tell us about it.’
Hiller has also worked with curator Paul Robertson, relating her work to his collection from other artists. ‘This is an experiment for me,’ she says. ‘I’m willing to engage with the public, and this is an opportunity to do it. Summerhall is a strange and interesting place – it’s very adventurous.’
‘Edinburgh has a great atmosphere in the festival, but people get very speedy. If some of my work slows them down a little then I’ll be really happy — that would please me a lot.’ (Rhona Taylor) ■ Summerhall, 560 1581, 1 Aug–26 Sep, free. See longer interview at list.co.uk/festival
PREVIEW AUGUSTO CORRIERI AND VINCENT GAMBINI Performance and film works by an artist and magician
Artist Augusto Corrieri and magician Vincent Gambini both critically explore performance and the structures of theatre through their work for this year's Edinburgh Art Festival at Rhubaba Gallery and Studios.
Corrieri’s 2013 film Diorama will be exhibited in Rhubaba’s gallery space throughout August. Like sleight of hand magic, it reveals how gestures are (re)framed by the performance context and the way the stage influences how gestures are read and understood. Gambini experiments with the misdirection of magic and performance but, despite his heavily deconstructed shows, the intrigue in his work remains intact. After witnessing it, Rhubaba co- director Siân Robinson Davies said: 'the magic was still mystifying while it was being demystified.'
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Late has evolved from one singular event to Art Late North and Art Late South, which are this year joined by Art Late Central. As well as a multifaceted exhibition lineup, there will be live music at Art Late North by Woven Tents and South by the Little Kicks. The first Art Late this season kicks off with new kid on the block, Central, and will take in work at the Old Royal High School, Trinity Apse and the City Art Centre.
‘Art Late Central reflects the fact that our own As in Corrieri’s film, Gambini will be crafting his
festival programming is even more ambitious this year,' says Carey, 'and we wanted to have an opportunity to share our major exhibition, Where do I end and you begin, and some of our commissions with audiences out of hours.’ (Kirsty Neale) ■ Various locations, 226 6558, 7, 14 & 21 August, free. own performative deceptions using apparatuses of theatre and public performance. During the festival he will work in-residence at Rhubaba, developing a new piece, This is not a magic show!, whose final performance will take place at Pilrig St Paul's Church on Saturday 30 August. (Dane Sutherland) ■ Rhubaba, rhubaba.org, 2–31 August, free.