list.co.uk/festival Reviews | F E S T I VA L V I S UA L A R T
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WILD AND MAJESTIC: ROMANTIC VISIONS OF SCOTLAND Exploration of the ideas and images that came to define Scotland ●●●●●
The story of how tartan, bagpipes, hills and heather became the brand of Scotland is a complex one, fraught with controversy. After all, those things which were systematically suppressed in the years after Culloden were being embraced as the height of fashion in London and Edinburgh less than 100 years later – in some cases by the same aristocrats who were still clearing Highlanders from their land.
The two best-known figures in the drama loom large in this exhibition – Sir Walter Scott, who bedecked Edinburgh society in tartan for the visit of King George IV in 1822, and Queen Victoria, who inspired a generation of nobility to spend their summers at Highland shooting lodges. Other players are included, too: Ossian, for example, fake though he probably was, was revered across Europe, while Beethoven scored a setting of a song by Robert Burns as early as 1814.
Other narratives are suggested: the destruction of livelihoods for sheep; the yawning gap between rich and poor; the backdrop of the industrial revolution. But too many of these strands are confined to easily missed touchscreen displays. However, while subtext is in danger of remaining buried, this remains an ambitious, important show. (Susan Mansfield) n National Museum of Scotland, until 10 Nov, £10 (£7.50–£8.50).
HANNA TUULIKKI: DEER DANCER Exploration of our relationship with deer ●●●●● SAMSON YOUNG: REAL MUSIC A fusion of sound and vision ●●●●●
Glasgow-based artist and composer Hanna Tuulikki has chosen, in playful and distinctive fashion, to explore the manner in which human culture has been impacted by our relationship with deer.
Based in her interests of exploring folk tradition and ‘mimesis’ (a kind of cultural mimicry), she looks at traditional dances from Mexico, the USA and the UK – including the Scots Highland Fling – which are said to have their origins in attempts to emulate the hunting and rutting behaviour of deer and stags. Simply by looking at these historic practices, Tuulikki opens the door to other, more contemporary associations; the grunting alpha masculinity of those involved in the hunt, for example, or the environmental impact wrought by the increase of the Scottish deer population for the purpose of stalking.
Works are playful and meticulously crafted. In the front gallery, five distinctive classical-contemporary tribal costumes have been beautifully formed from disparate materials (a stag-skull headdress; a copper breastplate; tweed trousers; a ‘hobby’ stag made from a broom), and in the blacked-out centre gallery, the two-channel film of the title sees Tuulikki herself wearing the costumes as invented masculine, historical figures. These characters’ gestures and movements are beautifully matched by a score for voice which is haunting and ethereal. (David Pollock) n Edinburgh Printmakers, until 6 Oct, free.
Listen hard to this first UK show by Hong Kong- based composer Samson Young, and you might just hear something you’ve never heard before. This is possibly because it doesn’t exist, just as the giant monumental His Master’s Voice-style horn that dominates the gallery seems to have been washed up like some retro-futurist steampunk dinosaur. A siren’s call intermittently emanates from the circle of state-of-the-art speakers beneath mood- enhancing lights, reflecting the wordless fanfares of ‘Possible Music #2’ (2019), a fusion of sound and vision that offers up worlds of possibilities.
Co-created with Edinburgh University's Next Generation Sound Synthesis (NESS) research group, this is as much a leap into the void as ‘Muted Situations #22: Muted Tchaikovsky’s 5th’ (2018). This 45-minute film fills the gallery wall with images of an orchestra in full flight. With their instruments silenced, this leaves only the creaks, squeaks and gasps that signify the sheer physical graft of such exertions. It’s a routine free-jazzers and noise artists such as
local heroes Usurper have been playing with for years by way of ‘disabled’ instruments. Hearing such a pure gut-level release on a grand scale like this, however, strips away the orchestra’s formalism. With fancifully titled visual scores lining the corridors upstairs, another film, ‘The world falls apart into facts’ (2019) sees the show out with a bang. (Neil Cooper) n Talbot Rice Gallery, until 5 Oct, free.
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TRISHA BROWN: TIME, SPACE, GRAVITY First UK show of legendary choreographer’s archive ●●●●●
The ballroom at Jupiter Artland is the perfect place to witness the wonders of Trisha Brown. The American choreographer did so much to push the boundaries of contemporary dance right up until her death in 2017, aged 80, and this is the first UK showing of Brown’s extensive archive of filmed performances. Depending on timing, anyone passing by in the garden outside
the ballroom will either hear the loft-friendly electronics of Laurie Anderson’s ‘Long Time No See’ that accompanies 1985’s seven dancer work, ‘Set and Reset, Version 1’, or else the more classically inclined selections from Pygmalion by Jean-Philippe Rameau that go with ‘Les Yeux et l’ame’ (2011). While the former features costumes by visual artist Robert Rauschenberg, the latter – part of a 40th anniversary celebration of Brown’s work – sees eight dancers show off the work of an elder stateswoman at her peak. In both, for all the work’s seriousness, judging by the dancers’ faces, there’s clearly much fun to be had.
This attitude goes right back to the earliest short films. There’s a primal purity and child-like joy to Brown’s solo rope-play in ‘Ballet’ (1968), ‘Man Walking Down the Side of a Building’ (1970) and ‘Walking on the Wall’ (1971). These were the formative years of Trisha Brown Dance Company, when a dilapidated New York was an adventure playground for the taking.
The 16 films on show skip across the decades while photographs capture her in full flight. Audiences can witness a sense of this first-hand when Trisha Brown Dance Company visit to perform ‘In Plain Site’. This commission for the Edinburgh International Festival will see the company reconceive some of Brown’s short works outdoors against the backdrop of three of the park’s key sculptural works. It should be worth taking the leap for. (Neil Cooper) n Jupiter Artland, Wilkieston, until 29 Sep, £8.10 (£4.50–£7.20).
7–14 Aug 2019 THE LIST FESTIVAL 103