FESTIVAL VISUAL ART | Ruth Ewan
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both amateur and professional, to take part in a series of workshops. ‘We weren’t asking the magicians to replicate Ian’s tricks or political beliefs, just to look at their own practice and ask what in their practice they could use to incorporate new layers of belief within the magic. A lot of the magicians had elements of politics in their work already.’
Ewan’s own practice is socially engaged and often invites participation from both adults and children. Artwork might take the form of anything from a jukebox to a radio broadcast, or a wildl ower meadow turned into a botanical clock. The works are brought to life by an audience, whether or not they know they’re looking at art. ‘Audiences who are aware it’s an art project will come and make a choice to come. Other people will just stumble across it, who have no idea it’s part of an art festival or developed by an artist; I i nd those are some of the most interesting experiences and most interesting responses.’
Ewan’s work is always political, often recovering little known aspects of the history of radical politics, from ‘The Glasgow Schools’, made for GI in 2012, which drew out the history of Glasgow’s socialist Sunday Schools, to
‘Another Time’, made for Camden Arts Centre and then for the Sao Paolo Biennale, which created a visual representation of the French Revolutionary Calendar, a secular calendar which renamed the days of the year after animals, plants and domestic objects. ‘All the work I make is connected to political these beliefs are ideas and beliefs, how circulated, get lost, reappear again. A lot of my work is also looking at a long historical narrative of social movements, the continuity of radical ideas throughout time, the idea of these struggles not getting lost, being communicated by different means.’
The aim is always to present ideas in creative ways, to provoke thought and discussion. Ewan says: ‘What I like about Ian Saville’s work is that he makes something look incredibly simple, he uses humour in a very clever way to get across pointed messages. There’s a truth- telling process in magic which, to my mind, is what the best art works do as well.’
Ruth Ewan: Sympathetic Magick, various locations across Edinburgh, until 26 Aug, free. For a schedule of performances and activities, see edinburghartfestival.com
126 THE LIST FESTIVAL 1–8 Aug 2018