I ASSEMBLY ROOMS 54 George Street. 226 599;. Mon—Fri Ham—midnight: Sat noon-midnight; Sun mam—midnight. Dazzle Until 1 Sept. Dazzle has now become established as a forum for new and exciting jewellery designers. in this showing 45 top contemporary jewellery designers are showing I000 pieces.
I IA BELLE ANGELE Hasties Close. Cowgate (next to 369 Gallery). 225 2774. Mon—Fri 10am—5pm; Sat 11am—4pm.
The Environmental Mural Until 31 Oct. Emphasising the beauty of Edinburgh and its surrounding countryside. the mural iIIUstrates the problems we may face if environmental damage is not halted.
I BLUE MOON CAFE 60 Broughton Street. 556 2788. Mon-Sat l2--7pm. Talking Textures Until 17 Aug. Textiles student Alistair Warner takes a break from college to display his work in a more congenial ambience. Kay liielland: Photographic Portraits 17—31 Aug.
I C 8: J BROWN HOUSE FURNISHERS 31—39 South Clerk Street. 667 1051. Mon—Sat 9am—5pm; Thurs 9am—7pm.
Meg Watson: Fabric Collage Until 31 Aug. (‘heck out the springs in (‘ and .I Brown‘s three-piece suites and furnish your soul with Meg Watson‘s collages.
I CITY ART CENTRE 2 Market Street. 225 2424 ext 6650. Mon. Tue. Sat 10am—6pm; Wed. Thurs. Fri 10am—9pm; Sun 12—6pm. Licensed cafe.
Sweat of the Sun: Gold of Peru Until 30 Sept. Pizarro and fellow conquLsradores invaded the Inca empire in 1532 and stripped it hare of precious objects and gold — revered as having mystical properties by the Incas who described it as ‘the sweat of the sun‘. The Spanish melted down their golden spoils. but thanks to the Incas‘ burial customs. many gold and silver objects. as well as ceramics and beautiful textiles. survived. hidden away from the plunderers in elaborate tombs. A joint Peruvian—Scottish venture. the exhibition features surviving treasures from all Peru‘s pre-I Iispanic cultures.
I EDINBURGH COLLEGE OF ART [.auriston Place. 229 9311. Daily 10am-5pm. New British Ceramics Until 2 Sept.
I EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY LIBRARY George Square, 667 1011 ext661 l. Mon-Fri 9am—5pm. A Little Festival of Gardens Throughout Aug. Three exhibitions for the green-fingered: Gertrude Jekyll: A Vision of Garden and Wood. Historic Gardens in Scotland and ‘A Careless-Ordered Garden“. a collection of books from the library's annals.
I INHOUSE 28 Howe Street. Mon—Sat 9.30am—6pm
Design in Japan Until BSept. Contemporary furniture. textile. product. I LAMB'S HOUSE Burgess Street. Leith. Mon—Sat 10am—4pm.
Paola Marcellino: Wearing Art Until 25 Aug. For the fashion-conscious. a range of exotic and original tapestries to be worn and admired.
I MARTIN AND FROST I30 McDonald Road. 557 8787. Mon-Sat 9am—5.30pm; Sun noon—4.30pm.
Oriental Carpet Exhibition: Tribal Weaving Until 2 Sept. An exhibition of rugs showing the difference in weaving between tribal areas.
I NUMBER 98 Grassmarket. Daily
1 1am—6pm.
Celebration of Wearable Art Creations in linen and wool by Anne Higgins. Details from the gallery.
I OUT OF THE NOMADS TENT 40 Pilrig Street. Daily 10am—7pm.
Old Lamps and New Until 1 Sept. Old Turkish kilim fragments and stunning new
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Olivia Irvine, New Work, 369 Gallery. The 369 continues its festival timetable with an exhibition of the latest work of Olivia Irvine. The recent canvases illustrate a sea-change in the form and method of her work which has evolved and become more abstract as she continues her painterly explorations into the colour of memory and its underlying symbolic representation. Carolyn Steedman writes of childhood in the 19th century as being ‘. . . an extension of depth and space, of individual lnteriorlty - a way of discovering the place lying deep within the individual soul - always a lost place, always there’. Irvine’s work has
a parallel with these words in her painterly journeys which explore the interplay of fantasy, reality and memory against the backdrop of this lost place, neverto be returned to, a place and feeling of both adventure and loss, lament and fascination. Her interest in the myths and magical realism of Latin American literature and the psychological significance of Celtic folk memory influence the processes of thinking, feeling, sensation and intuition which she calls upon in her approach to her imaginative image making.
Irvine uses her hands, rollers and palette knife to create surfaces, textures and layers of depth in her rich tapestries of colour which have the symbol of water as their central metaphor. Water, like memory and emotion, has the property of freezing, flowing, reflecting, melting. Memory can obscure, reveal, suspend in time, be caught in the stories of our history and desires- Irvine's titles, ‘Oeep Frozen’, ‘Oiscovering lce‘, ‘River’, ‘Bend’, ‘Stretch’ illuminate these ideas in an associative way through the rich interweaving of layers and the psychological properties of colour. This is done with a visual sense of the significant, a soliloquy in paint. (Lorna
J. Waite)
ZEN AND THE ART
Margaret Smith, Architecture Gallery, Chambers Street.
Margaret Smith spent nine years in Japan as her work was maturing, learning about the techniques used in traditional Japanese painting — not in order to imitate, but in orderto develop her own vision of the landscapes she saw. As a result, she was invited to take part in the Japanese annual exhibition of traditional painting - the first Westerner to be so invited, and a considerable honour.
This is an exhibition of responses to landscapes, torthe main part large canvases painted in acrylic washes. Judging from the marks on the sides of the stretchers, they are painted (or at least started) on the floor. Wet canvas is flooded with the thinned paint, in a technique that will be familiar from Bert Irvin's work (shown earlier at Talbot Rice), though to far different
ends. Interestingly, both Irvin and Smith openly acknowledge the influence and inspiration offered by Turner. While Irvin evokes Turner's passion and exuberance, Smith's work is more reminiscent of the quieter watercolours, such as some of those in the Scottish National Gallery collection. These, however, are large canvases, often eight to ten feet. The successes and failures of the techniques are thus writ large. Some of the expanses of sky are superb, convincing in their execution. The problems arrive with the thicker paint: to draw the line of a hill across a large canvas with one broad brush-stroke is a risk, and sometimes it doesn't come off. The small works on paper in heavy gouache don't feel resolved, though the smaller canvases do imply that a scaling down of the work can prove
fruitful. (Hilary Robinson)
weaving from the Middle East. Also nomadic jewellery. Hindu statues.
Rajasthani Kalemkaris and Anatolian ceramics.
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The List 17 23 August “#0065