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FESTIVAL VISUAL ART | Reviews
LAURE PROUVOST: MONOLOG
A deliberately chaotic
exhibition fi lled with the artist’s characteristically whimsical works
Jupiter Artland
ARTY GARDENS
Rachael Cloughton picks some of the best gardens for art lovers to explore in and around Edinburgh during the festival
JUPITER ARTLAND Take a half-hour bus ride to West Lothian and you’ll arrive at one of the most remarkable sculpture parks you’ll ever visit – Jupiter Artland. Grand outdoor works by some of the most influential contemporary artists, including Antony Gormley, Nathan Coley and Cornelia Parker, are dispersed across the 100-acre site, which was set up by the art collectors Robert and Nicky Wilson in 2009. There’s also a programme of temporary exhibitions and this year’s Christian Boltanski show is worth the journey alone. ■ Bonnington House Steadings, Wilkieston, 01506 889900, daily 10am–5pm through Jul & Aug, £8.50 (£4.50- £6), jupiterartland.org
CALTON HILL The philosopher David Hume lobbied Edinburgh Council to build a walk ‘for the health and amusement of the inhabitants’ and in 1724 the town council bought Calton Hill, making it one of the first public parks in the country. The site is most famous for its collection of historic monuments – such as the neoclassical architect William Playfair’s ‘National Monument’, an unfinished reconstruction of the Parthenon. However, art lovers on the hunt for something more contemporary should check out the Collective Gallery, one of Edinburgh’s most cutting edge, artist-led spaces. ■ Collective Gallery, City Observatory and City Dome, Calton Hill, 556 1264, daily 10am–6pm during Aug, free, collectivegallery.net
ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN Edinburgh’s botanic gardens are a city centre oasis, with 70 acres of lush flora from all over the world. But for art lovers, the main draw is Inverleith House, an 18th-century mansion hosting a consistently acclaimed programme of temporary exhibitions. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the gallery and to celebrate, it’s hosting I Still Believe in Miracles, which presents a retrospective of the space’s huge contribution to the city’s art scene over the last three decades and includes work by Louise Bourgeois, Isa Genzken and Nicolas Party. ■ Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden, Inverleith Row, 248 2971, Tue–Sun 10am–5.30pm, free, rbge.org.uk
LITTLE SPARTA Set in the rolling Pentland Hills just outside Edinburgh, Little Sparta represents renowned Scottish artist Ian Hamilton Finlay’s greatest work. Little Sparta comprises ten different gardens, each designed to evoke a different character and mood, and an astonishing 270 works by Finlay. The artist’s most familiar themes, such as the contradictory relationship between culture and nature, are particularly resonant in this dramatic setting. ■ Stonypath, Dunsyre, 07826 495677, until 30 Sep (Mon, Wed & Fri only), 2.30–5pm, £10, littlesparta.org.uk
Typically, the Turner Prize-winning French- born artist has produced a playful, seemingly whimsical exhibition that goes all out to disrupt our relationship with modes of communication, be it verbal, written or otherwise.
The artworks, which demonstrate Prouvost’s usual tropes and techniques, are set out across four adjoining intimate spaces; spaces perfect for getting up close and personal with unhinged but equally mesmerising works.
Stressful noises and undecipherable words collide and compete across gallery walls. Most artists would avoid this confusion, but you suspect Prouvost anticipated and welcomed this chaos. Her work debunks our fixed understanding of information so that the systems on which we rely disintegrate under scrutiny. In one video the word ‘deeper’ becomes silly and ungraspable as she incessantly whispers the word with the seductive appeal of a perfume advert.
Prouvost likes to exaggerate the physical
presence of television screens, preferring to use boxy monitors with a slightly fuzzy, bleeding visual quality. For Monolog, she pushes the ‘thingness’ of these monitors by having them perch precariously on spindly metal legs. She’s done this before, but here she’s pushed this further with monitors variously looming and crouching. One work in particular forces us to peer up as if it were an alien spacecraft sucking us upwards. The spiraling motifs and sinister, urgent sounds enforce this sensation. An outlandish analogy perhaps, but Prouvost would probably enjoy it. (Laura Campbell) ■ Summerhall, 560 1580, 4 Aug–30 Sep, free. ●●●●●
108 THE LIST FESTIVAL 4–11 Aug 2016