FESTIVAL
ART
llam—sunset. Cafe. [D].
Margaret Stones: Flora oI Louisana Until 8 Sept. £2 (£1 ) children free. Botanical paintings from a fourteen-year project to illustrate all the native plants of Louisiana. Admission free until 10Aug.
Herman de Vries Until 10 Nov. £2 (£1) children free. First Scottish exhibition by a German artist who makes art from natural materials.
Living in a Ralntorest Until 13 Dec. A Borneo-style forest house reconstructed in the Botanics' Exhibition Hall and Vanishing Paradise - photographs taken in the Venezuelan rainforest by George Bernard and Stephen Dalton.
I ROYAL MUSEUM OF SCOTLAND Chambers Street. 225 7534. Mon—Sat 10am—5pm; Sun 2—5pm.
Behind Golden Screens: Treasures from the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Until 20 Oct. A selection of some ofJapan's most outstanding decorative art. from the 1 1th to the 19th century. includingscrolls. screens. prints. samurai armour and weaponry.
I SPANISH CONSUL 63 North Castle Street. Daily 9am—4pm; Sat 10am—2pm. Carmina Garcia Alegre: Paintings Until 31 Aug. Paintings executed in various techniques. including enamel fired on copper.
I 369 GALLERY 233 Cowgate. 225 3013. Mon—Sat noon—6pm.
Oil-Centre Until 28 Sept. 369 celebrates a decade ofinternational relations with a mini-festival of visual art. drawn from Soviet. American and European artists. None of the participants works in a major art centre — hence the title — and theironly connection is their association with 369.
I WEST AND WILDE BOOKSHOP 25a Dundas Street. Daily 9am—9pm.
The AIDS Memorial Guilt Until 31 Aug. A selection of panels from the enormous quilt. made from thousands of3ft x 6ft panels. each bearing the name ofsomeone who has died ofAIDS.
GROUP SHOWS
I CITIZENS STUDIOS 17—21 Assembly Street. Leith. Daily (except Mon) noon—5.30pm. Leith Open '91 Sun 25 Aug—8 Sept. The first open submission exhibition in this WASPS-run gallery space. spotlighting the important work of a number of Leith-based artists. Youth. innovation. the true spirit ofthe fringe? I CHESSEL GALLERY Moray House. The Royal Mile. 556 8455. Mon—Sat 10am—5pm. The Chessel Group Festival Exhibition Until 31 Aug. Ceramics. painting.embroidery and jewellery. I COLLECTIVE GALLERY 166 High Street. 220 1260. Tue—Sat noon—6pm. Festival Show Until 1 Sept. New works— including painting. drawing. sculpture. tapestry and mixed media — by 27 artists. I ENGLISH SPEAKING UNION GALLERY 23 Atholl Crescent. Mon—Sat 10am—5pm. Annual Festival Exhibition Until 31 Aug. A mixed show of recent works by Scottish artists. I HANOVER FINE ART 22A Dundas Street. 5562181. Mon—Fri 10.30am—6pm; Sat 10am—4pm. Summer Festival Show Until 2 Sept. Mixed show of oils. watercolours. pastels. acrylics. drawings and prints by over 50 artists from Scotland. Brazil. China. Germany. Spain. USSR and other countries. I HOLYROOD ART CLUB St Ann’s Community Centre. 6 South Gray‘s Close. Mon—Sat lOam—7.30pm. Exhibition and Sale Until 24 Aug. Oils. watercolours. pastels and drawings
Maiados Market
New Paintings and Etchings by Mar] Bond at The Open Eye Gallery until 5 Sept.
Take time to escape into Mari Bond’s paintings and you will smell sweet spices, Ieel hot colours, see Krishna prayer flags and a host of images redolent oi India.
Although it is two years since Bond visited India she acknowledges that it is ‘part of her which she is working through‘ and her painterly language weaves images oi Goa and Baiasthan togetherwith references to her surroundings in File. It was her discovery at Indian hand-made papers which liberated her technique: the paper absorbs layer upon layer 01 paint and its irregular Iibres are exploited so that the images retain a rough textured quality on top of which she models tissue and gold paper collage.
Many motils reappear in several
SHAKING FF THE GU
posed in dream-like emblematic settings.
The gems of the show are the deliciously coloured oils. In Majados Market, Baiasthanis wearing high hats watch a caged bird from behind hanging prayer flags. In Goan Prayer Flags we look through a window onto a myriad of banners and in Alto Plano the tall Icarus figure is grafted across a Iemale ligure; lrom a distance the two become the symbol at a wheel, an allegory tor eternal life.
In many other images Bond features an Indian sculpture called a Toran — a shrine-like beacon which Rajasthani women would Iightto welcome their men home from war. The Toran not only beckons Baiasthanis home but its presence in Bond's studio seems to entice her back to the mysteries ot
India.
images and this gives a synthesis to the :
exhibition- particularly the outstretched ligure of Icarus with strange propeller-shaped wings. ‘Thingstake over.’ explains Bond, ‘. . . that propeller weathervane with concrete wheels was a piece of sculpture my son was making and it crept into my work‘. Summer Solstice, The Aviators and Lovers l and II also portray her son and his girllriend,
This gallery is an Aladdin's cave and simultaneously spotlights a selection of contemporary British sculpture, the
, most ingenious being Jason Cleverly's bizarre llare Cupboard and Bruce
Frost’s covetable Book Boxes.
Venture into the basement and you will be lurther amazed by an exhibition of Master Printmaking boasting names
- such as Durer and Picasso. All in all,
Open Eye’s collection is a Festival
‘ must! (Sarah Knox)
galore.
I OUAKER MEETING HOUSE 7 Victoria Terrace. 220 6109. Daily 10.30am—4.30pm.
Robin Tanner’s Vision of Britain Until 31 Aug. Apocalyptic prophecies? Tanner. ‘passionate ecologist and distinguished artist‘ has his artistic say. alongside Tim Stead‘s furniture and Murray Miller‘s
ceramics.
I TORRANCE GALLERY 298 Dundas Street. 556 6366. Mon—Fri 11am—6pm: Sat 10.30am—4pm.
RBCBIII Works Until 31 Aug. Workson paper by Josephine Graham. Ethel Walker and Christine Ironside. and gold and silver jewellery by Sheana Stephen.
I TRAVERSE THEATRE 112 West Bow.
Grassmarket. 226 2633. Daily (except Mon) 10.30am—late.
Festival Exhibition and Auction Until 25 Aug. Various works by Elizabeth Blackadder. Joseph Uric and other prominent Scottish artists. The auction will be held on Mon 26 Aug at 6.30pm and entry is by catalogue. £1 at the box office. I WASPS STUDIO AND GALLERY Patriot Hall. Henderson Row. Stockbridge. 229 1920. Mon—Sat Ilium—4pm. Contemporary Art Show Until 24 Aug. New works by WASPS artists. including ceramics. paintings. kites and paper.
PHOTOGRAPHY
I EDINBURGH COLLEGE OF ART Lauriston Place. 229 931 1 . Daily “lam-5pm. Edinburgh College of Art Photography 1: ntil 1 Sept. Selected by David Williams. I THE FRENCH INSTITUTE 13 Randolph Crescent. 225 5366. Mon—Fri 9.30am—5.30pm: Sat 9.30am-- l .30 pm. La Riviera de Charles Negre L'ntil 6 Sept. A painter who turned to photography in 1839. Negre is now recognised as one of France's greatest and most innovative photographers. This exhibition comprises 80 original prints; dating from 1852—1880. they are the first photographs taken ofthe Mediterranean coast. giving some idea as to what the area was like under the reignof Napoleon III. The Berbers ol Morocco: Photographs by Alan Keohane Until 31 Aug. A photographer with a unique understanding of North Africa and the Middle East. and the confidence of the notoriously camera-shy Berber people. I LEITH LIBRARY 28—30 Ferry Road. 554 5507. Mon—Fri 9am—8.30pm; Sat 9am—1pm. John Rankin: Photographs Until 1 Sept. Works on various themes. including social documentary. landscape and still life. I MERCHANT HALL 22 Hanover Street. Mon—Sat mam—8pm. lntemational Photography Until 31 Aug. £1. 129th international exhibition ofpictorial photography. I NETHERROW ARTS CENTRE 43 High Street. 556 9579. Mon—Sat 10am—4.3()pm. The Edinburgh Festival Exposed Until 31 Aug. Photographs by Marius Alexander. I PORTFOLIO GALLERY 43 Candlemaker Row. 220 1911. Mon-Sat l lam—5.30pm. Arthur Tress: Fish Tank Sonata L'ntil 7 Sept. £1 (75p). A New Yorker with asurreal bent. Tress uses a Victorian aquarium. filled with various bits of40s and 50s kitsch. to tell a bizarre and fantastic fairy tale. A stanza of verse accompanies each print. unfolding a story which delves deep into the history of past civilisations. Strange but true. I PORTRAIT GALLERY Queen Street. 556 8921. Mon—Sat 10am—5pm; Sun 2—5pm. [D]. Cafe. Los Todos Santeros: Photographs by Hans Namuth Until 3 Nov. A German-born photographer. Namuth first visited the remote Guatemalan village ofTodos Santeros in 1947. Thirty years later he returned to create a permanent photographic record of the inhabitants. their beliefs.their customs andtheir surroundings. ISTILLS GALLERY 105 High Street.557 1140. Tue—Sat 1 lam—5.30pm. Stolen Glances: Lesbians take Photographs Until 14 Sept. 50p. British and American lesbian photographers challenge ; stereotypical images oftheir sexuality with a lively. witty and thought-provoking ' show. curated by Jean Fraser and Tessa Boffin and including the controversial work of Della Grace. l
I mums WORKSHOP 34 I lamtlton J
Place. 225 7942. Daily lilam—latc. The List 23 — 29 August 1991 65