PREVIEW ART
Men, muses,
and myths
Miranda France meets Ashley Cook, Glaswegian
‘ i‘liemote Control’. silkscreen 199i
I Mozart's wile may not be gettingas much attention as her leil-years-dead
. k d l d frustrates and disappoints modern humour; ~P|cnty More Fish“ a sepia husband miS year. but 1hc prmtma er an exp 0 er woman in her search for love. lfYou 40s photograph ofwomensplashing Humcmn A” Gallery“ Of universal myths. Can‘t Change Your Life. Change around in the sea onto which (‘ook ‘ going at least some waylo
Your Hairstyle' quips one piece. has added several large. thrashing redressing the imbalance Brisk. smiling 40s and 50s hoovering fish — and a shark. ln ‘Emotional with a special showing of ‘1 always had the idea that When I fell home—makers. surrounded by Support for the (ireat White l lope‘ a the” Pmtritlt “t in love it was gOing to be Utopia: Fiorucci cherubs and big-kiss red scantily-clad ‘nurse‘ stands demurer ( WWW“ wct’crr says Ashley Cook, wistfully100ktng mouths, jostle against sinister truths beside an elaborate pillar. in which a pmfilfldg", out Of the Window 0f the Glasgow — blindfolds. gas masks and broken man's face appears surrounded by :lrrzcd $56.15;,“ 5 “ Prim StUdio Where her.CXhi.bition dOHS- In ‘thn the Skies were FU” film)“ heavenly Cphcmcm _ 1‘ Ainadcus. 'l‘hze‘pziinling is ‘Due to Human PONY. '5 being hung of Hope‘ an overlaid text lists the gigantic ego tottering on the top of a thwniypmmm madwr ‘NOW I realise it doesn't save YOU- - - jovs of innocence: ‘Roval Jellv. pedestal that both he and she are (‘onsta'nze during her bUt I have Changed my conception:I watching Tellv. Filmstar Kisses. helping to keep ‘erect‘. 'I‘his. lifetime and was used to feel very "me" that l was the Very Best Wishes. Adepts. Sages. explains Cook. dates from the time Prehented t0 the _ Vietimi always on the receivmg end Higher Wages. Meditation. Fighting she felt herself becoming a titut‘fcr'w‘ 'bt' Eift'si‘” ofthings. Then I reattsed that 1 W35 Inflation‘ . . . the list goes on. life-support for dependent men. In the baddie, or at least equally the ‘I suppose I came from a other imagesstheiiiother whore Slat.i(ntmd in (“usgbw baddie.‘ dysfunctional family‘ says Cook theme reconcrles itsell . or women on during the pimp whmc AShley COOk isn‘t Cynical about (who reads a lot of psychology). motorbikes flee domesticity with a father was given the love exactly, she just thinks both ‘Dad was an alcoholic, and an whoop 0f adrenalin. portrait by Mozart's son. Sides have along way to g0 to Petteet idealist. He used to drive around It‘s a world where bubbles are Leopold. The portrait - their act In her neW series 0t wearing a German helmet. Mum was burst. Mr Right‘s proved phoney and recently returned to the silkscreen prints. men and Women a real hippie. Reality was strange in dreams brought down to earth with a '_{‘f"',°r'i,‘."“‘f"°r "fail-Y . . y I H yearlnMcnna—hasbccn are tOOIbatt teams slugging OUt the our house and I had massive crash. But there are no good guys 'rcpmduccd in mm“ and second half— but men are noolo'nger expectations ofwhat growing up and bad guys. and certainly no _ articles mum. more times the traditional enemy. Here it is the would be.‘ It‘s a background which fail—safe solutions. Overwhelmineg than an). mh'cr “wk in thc young girl‘s dream of romance. has also given herapowerful the impression isthat ifthis is a fool‘s Human", Anfiuncry‘ marriage and Shiny hairdOS that imagination and a wry sense of game. at least no one's winning yet. including those by Whistler and Mackintosh. I Sat26 Octobersaw the _ _ _ official openingof Glasgow‘s (iarncthill w . Park. the culmination ofa
DARK DAYS
While the cities at either end oi Scotland’s central belt slug it out lor cultural and commercial supremacy, the communities at what Liz Lochhead i has called the ‘pockmarked, slag- i scarred, scraped land' in between 5 struggle with the consequences oi pit \ closures and industrial decline, largely ' .. unnoticed except lor idle glances irom passing Sprinter trains. It is on this landscape that Fred Crayk locuses in . his latest paintings, portraying it as a [
three-year project - initiated by the (ioethe-lnstitut — to turn a derelict site in (iarncthill i into a spectacular
playground designed by environmental artist. Dieter Magnus. The playground features a water landscape with sluice gates. an aerial runway. trechotises and a giant chess board.
V IN PRINT
I Drawn to Trouble: The
blighted, ignored wasteland, scarred
and ruined by the conilict between _ . - , I. l. y. Forging at all Artist liric humanity and name. _ A .K“ t y . . g A ‘ “Chi—10H](’N'tillnStrCillll. Beneath lurid sulphurous skies, huge E ' ‘ iii-‘3’: ‘ ”“ '1“f-",h‘;."f looming bings in sombre browns and , But while these anti-pastoral Although there is plenty 0t emotion. 233,2”): "I .3125“: 32,12, ,hc desolate black overshadow leatureless i landscapes, moral and cultural as there are no people in these paintings. on, , stations tart] .. t-httt- .. orev tl0llStllll blocks Poetlelt thtt mean 5 much as physical, embody and and people are Surely the key to week. llebborn has been dark windows. The surlaces oi the ; dramatise the prolound alienation healing post-industrial wounds- I'm decribctl as the maker of paintings are rippled and cracked, 5 between humankind and nature, and willing to bet that there are large 'thc finest artfakcs hi the roughened and scraped by the coal dust i the human misery it has brought, there numbers at resolute, resilient, leth worm)“. and his and shale grit mixed in with the i is an awkward paradox at work. For it resourcelul individuals actually living works hang in honors thickly-smeared paint. Titles such as was thanks to environmentally in this No-Man‘s Land, determinedly Cf"'“l‘“i‘“l”{”f ‘f'y' I‘l‘.‘ “ “W ‘Parnossos’ and ‘Harvest’ set on an destructive man-made industries that picking up the pieces and building new f;;;.f,,'n,,fi,'jr;‘,, if,“ ,, mm ironic commentary on the pastoral the region in question once thrived, frameworks tor their communities, who ‘ rM‘ulcy hwmlcm, L. ' tradition In oalntlno; poetic beauty is and thanks to their loss that it has would be considerably insulted by the tug at the art world than .. here notable tor its absence, and the sutiered. There is also a sense that unremitting hopelessness ol Crayk’s gcnllc lug. Behind the eleglac sense at loss, characteristic ol Crayk's gloomy pessimism, ehectively vision. (Sue Wilson) smiles. of course. lurks .r . the Wire. is hetlltlteltelt and and stirrineg conveyed though it is, is , Fred Crayk: No-Man's Land is at the """S‘ “W?” ‘“‘“‘“"‘L" i Sharpen“ by 8" untorolvlno ancor. somewhat selt-indulgently overblown. i Talbot Rice Gallery until Sat 16 Nov. i “h” “ """mg “ h”"“ J
8— 21 November lWi 61