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NOW Anya Gallaccio takes centre stage in latest edition of contemporary art series
This fi fth instalment of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art’s NOW series explores the work of six well-known contemporary visual artists, particularly those associated with Scotland. Its centrepiece is the work of Paisley- born sometime Turner Prize nominee Anya Gallaccio, which fi lls four rooms and takes in fearsome, mirror-effect slabs of obsidian; plinths venerating the melted down ceramic remains of a past work; and, most strikingly, a carpet made from the heads of innumerable red roses. In the gallery’s hall, Peles Empire (the German artists Katharina Stover and Barbara Wolff) have created ‘Flat Moods’, photographic images of detritus associated with this gallery made into fl oor-to-ceiling wallpaper coverings and printed Jesmonite panel reliefs. Zineb Sedira’s oddly abstract photographs are documentary close- ups relating to the sugar industry, alongside a boat’s anchor and propeller cast in pure sugar, prompting thoughts of the relative ease of transporting goods internationally compared to
the passage of human beings.
Charles Avery’s piece, an extension of his
Islanders series, places a whirring old projector showing fl uttering imaginary ‘insects’ swirling in uniform patterns against the cage-like shadow of a sculptural cube frame; while Aurelien Froment’s two discrete pieces of work jar slightly, one an arrangement of knotted neon rope, the other a moving image record of the 14th-century Apocalypse Tapestry of Angers juxtaposed with a recorded commentary on the Book of Revelation by Canadian poet Steven McCaffery. Finally, Roger Hiorns presents an arrangement
of obsolete items – a jet engine, an x-ray machine, a park bench – waiting to be ‘activated’ as part of a performance. Each room offers something unusual and stimulating, yet each feels like a starter bite next to Gallaccio’s main course. (David Pollock) ■ Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One), until 22 Sep, free. ●●●●●
31 Jul–7 Aug 2019 THE LIST FESTIVAL 123