FESTIVAL VISUAL ART | Previews & Reviews
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PRIVATE VIEW RODERICK BUCHANAN For his Edinburgh Art Festival show Charlotte Squared, Roderick Buchanan will present Number Crunching, a performative piece that aims to bring the life and work of 18th century radical and political reformer, Thomas Muir, to wider notice
What attracted you to Thomas Muir? I've been working with his story for some years now. I attended Thomas Muir High School. None of the staff knew very much about the guy, so in about 1998 I decided to look into the story and found that I connected pretty wholeheartedly with his tale. Tell me about Number Crunching. This is a piece about group learning and offers those involved the chance to contribute to the general archaeology of the overall project. The participant sits down at the start of the week and chooses a source that could inform the project. Through study, notes are taken and then reworked for inclusion in the master document, which is also on display for inspection by those interested to find out more about the subject. The current document, called 'skeleton' is the result of pulling info from about 12 sources. The hope is that during EAF we can add a couple more.
Why do you think Muir doesn't get the attention he probably deserves from the history books? He has the anti-Midas touch. Everything he worked at turns to shite. His bad luck even reaches beyond the grave. Even the school named after him in 1977 is now knocked down and the name lost in the local community in Bishopbriggs. What do you think Muir's importance is today? With him, and what happened to him, the authorities put an end to the Scottish Enlightenment. It's important to remember that after 1793 Scotland became a repressive country to live in. Being Scottish is not just about calling to mind the good times, we have to remember the bad old days also. Of course, we can learn about the progressive and the repressive side of Scotland's story by looking at this period.
(Neil Cooper) ■ Randolph House, until 31 Aug (not 9–22), 11am–5pm, free.
96 THE LIST FESTIVAL 7–14 Aug 2014
REVIEW PAUL CARTER: ICARO MENIPPUS [X2] Intimate, mixed media works by the late Paul Carter ●●●●●
Paul Carter, a lively participant in the art scene in Edinburgh, tragically died in a car crash in 2006. A tutor at ECA, he was also on the board of Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop as they began the fundraising process for their new premises at Hawthornvale. This exhibition, the first major recreation of his work since he died, stages three major installations previously shown in Edinburgh and Cardiff in 2002 and 2003.
The works evoke lone individuals, enthusiasts, survivors, fugitives. ‘Moses’ Basket’ is a huge egg- shaped helium balloon, fitted out in homespun fashion: an escape pod, or a spaceship for the intrepid traveller. ‘Daedalus’ is a kind of floating allotment, including a shed with a stove and lifejacket, suggesting a cheerful kind of survival on a post-apocalyptic planet.
‘13’ is the darkest work in the show, a sealed room viewed through a peppering of bullet holes, which together create the image of a face – Jesus, perhaps, or Che Guevara. The inhabitant of this world, with his mattress and his record player, might be holding out against a hostile world or making an assault against it. More than ten years on, Carter’s work is as interesting and pertinent as ever. (Susan Mansfield) ■ Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, 551 4490, until 30 Aug, free.
REVIEW KENNARDPHILLIPS: DEMOTALK A fearless critique of war and power by collaborative duo ●●●●●
Peter Kennard and Cat Phillips have been making work in response to the Iraq War since 2002. Over the past 12 years they have developed a provocative and unflinchingly fearless critical practice that confronts war and power across the world. The Financial Times’ pink sheets are scattered
across the walls of the exhibition space at Summerhall, some with the silhouette of David Cameron or Vladimir Putin emerging through the share index. In other copies of the paper, the artists scratch away at these world leaders’ hazy visage, revealing distressing scenes of war; what the artists describe as ‘the victims of traded profit’.
The pink grounds of the newspaper are torn up and trodden across the floor, sludgy and brown as if walked over in protest. Some of the walls in the space are burned, singed around the edges, leaving a charred smell in the air.
During the first two weeks of August,
Kennardphillips will be giving a lecture in the midst of their chaotic exhibition space. But the formal
artist talk soon unravels into a demonstration of action. DemoTalk is a visceral trace of the artists’ accumulating and irrepressible anger and frustration. (Rachael Cloughton) ■ Summerhall, 560 1590, until 26 Sep, free.