ART & EXHIBITIONS
HOTHOUSE FLOWERS
Amazon Moontlower by Margaret Mee
Margaret Mee tell into her extraordinary life almost by default. In 1952, when she was already 43 years old, she went out to Brazil to be with her dying sister, leil under the South American spell, and stayed.
Combining her fascination for Brazil's kaleidoscopic vegetation with a flair for painting, Mee set herself up as a treelance botanical artist-cum-environmental-crusader. At the age at 78, she was still pounding through the Amazon, painting tirelessly.
Her work is oddly enchanting. It resembles the backdrop of a science
liction iilm or a comic strip: meticulous and creepy as well peacelul and engaging. What is most remarkable about Mee is her near-tyrannical precision. She was not a trained botanist and yet her work is so accurate as to be ol great value to botanical science. At the exhibition at 30 watercolours, I felt compelled to do something I have never done in a botanical garden: retrace my steps to puzzle out why each painting seemed so diiierent from the next.
Pamela Robertson is in charge oi the exhibition and she feels that Mee’s work is as close to the real thing as any hothouse plant in Scotland. ‘Botanical gardens are as much removed lrom natural life as her paintings,’ she says. But what drew me in was not simply Mee's astoundineg carelul eye; rather, it was the knowledge that woven into the aesthetic achievement there is a well of scientific intuition and the story of a remarkable woman.
Just belore her death in 1988, Mee sat down in the Amazon and sketched something that no one else had ever sketched before in the wild. Flowering only once a year, the Moonllower is impossibly elusive. On this night, however, the jungle delivered itself into Mee’s hands.
Her biographer aptly described the coup as the ‘moment ol a liletime’. Shortly afterwards, while promoting her work iorthe first time in Britain, Mee died in a car accident. (Carl Honoré)
all a? compass g ery
_ OUTBACK
PAUL FLEMING
“ PAINTINGS & DRAWINGS FROM AUSTRALIA
March 2nd - 23rd 1991
This Exhibition is Subsidised by the
, x. Scottish Arts Council MONDAY - SATURDAY 105.30
178 West Regent Street, Glasgow 02 4R1. Tel: 041 221 6370 Fax: 041 248 1322
UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY
by members of the Scottish Sub-Aqua Club
INTERDEC GALLERY
next to Maryhill Burgh Hall, 24 Gairbraid Avenue, Glasgow 041 946 5912/5032
rarely seen images of Scottish Underwater Life
16th March - 26th March
Mon- Fri 10am-5.30pm; Sat 10am-4pm
numbers still live in Chile.
I SPRINGBURN MUSEUM Ayr Street. 557 1405. Mon—Fri 10.30am—5pm; Sat “lam—4.30pm; Sun 2—5pm.
Winner of the 1989 Award for Social and Industrial History and described as the first real community museum in Britain. Springbum Then and Now Views of old Springbum together with modern photographs taken from the same vieWpoints.
Unveiling ot Restored Ceramic Tile Panel The last four decorative panels rescued
‘ from Old Cowlairs Co-operative Building in Kemp Street. now restored and cleaned.
I STREET LEVEL 279—281 High Street. 552 2- l.Wed—Sat 11am—6pm; Sun 2—4pm. Ecstatic Antibodies Sat 9 Mar— 14 Apr. Fourteen artists challenge what they see as the media and government depiction of AIDS sufferers as ‘victims. criminals and sexual deviants' by exploring emotional and sexual issues through a variety of artistic media.
I THIRD EYE CENTRE 350 Sauchiehall Street. 332 7521. Tue—Sat 10am—5.30pm; Sun 2—5.30pm.
Perry Roberts and Craig Wood Until 24 Mar. At the forefront of new art in Britain. Roberts and Wood create installations which. through their lack ofirony, encourage ‘an accumulation ofmcanings and associations‘.
Attitude Until 24 Mar. Bold and colourful works. created by Project Ability. which challenge our attitudes towards disability. I TRANSMISSION GALLERY 28 King Street. 552 4813. Mon—Sat noon—6pm.
Silence Exile Cunning: New Work by Alan Johnston Until 23 Mar.
I WASPS 26 King Street. 5520564. Mon—Fri 9am—5pm; Sat 10.30am—5pm.
A shop. exhibition space and resource centre, with information on work by all WASPS artists. slide library and information about how to commission work.
No exhibition at present.
EDINBURGH
I THE ASH GALLERY 156 Canongate. 556 2160. Mon—Sat 10am-6pm.
No exhibitions until April.
I BARNES & FITZGERALD 47b George Street. 220 1305. Mon—Sat 10.30am—5.30pm. Contemporary glass gaflery.
Contemporary British Studio Class
I LA BELLE ANGELE Hastie‘s Close. Cowgate (next to 369 Gallery). 225 2774. Tue—Sat 10am—5pm. Closed Sat 16Mar. Mixed 8th Until 29 Mar. Watercolours. oils and sculpture.
I CANONGATE TOLBOOTH Royal Mile. 225 2424. Mon—Sat 10am-6pm.
The People’s Story The museum relates the story of the people of Edinburgh, told in their own words and through photographs and re-created tableaux.
I CENTRAL LIBRARY George [V Bridge. 225 5584. Mon-Fri 9am—8pm; Sat 9am—1pm.
20th Century Scottish Dramatists Until 27 Apr.
David Doull: Portraits of Edinburgh Citizens in the 19th Century Mon 11 Mar-20 Apr.
I COLLECTIVE GALLERY 166 High Street. 220 1260. Tue—Sat noon—6pm; Sun 2-5.30pm.
Jim Buckley: Illuminations 9:30 Mar. Sculptures which take as their starting points the cross-section plans ofmedieval cathedral columns and buttresses.
I EDINBURGH COLLEGE OF ART Lauriston Place, 229 9311. Mon—Thurs 10am-8pm; Fri 10am—5pm; Sat/Sun 10am-2pm.
Up In Arts Until Fri 22 Mar. Selected works from the Scottish colleges.
Evening Class Exhibition Mon 1 l—Sat 16 Mar.
I EDINBURGH PRINTMAKERS WORKSHOP AND GALLERY 23 Union Street. 557 2479. Mon—Sat 10am-5.30pm.
Works from the Collection Throughout Mar.
level
photography gallery I. workshop 279 - 281 high street glasgow g4
MARCH 9 APRIL 14
street level is subsidised by
the
wed - sat. 11-6 stat. 12-4 3 closed men I: too
9
4» ONE DAY CONFERENCE
+ THURS 4th APRIL s 1049"!
+ VENUE : GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART + FURTHER DETAILS AVAILABLE FROM 4- STREET LEVEL TEL : O“ 552 2151
scottish arts comcll I. giasgovv district council
impressions gallery
cstat
touring exhibition I
1C5
The List 8— 21 March 199151