PREVIEW m
GALLERY news f the
Togetherness
Making Out features the work of nine independent artists and finds connections as well as differences among the work. Gill Roth makes out ; at The Transmission : gallery.
fit .
Out Of The Blue was launched last March on a shoestring budget of £2000 and has been very much a labour of love for coordinators Anne Marie Culhane and Trudi Gibson. They had just three weeks to transform the derelict property into a professional
Dramatic backdrop: one of Joanne Tatham and Tom Sullivan's composite portraits galle'y space below the" “fit 39°"- ‘It was total chaos, we were mixing
MARK CAMPANlNl/HERALD & POST
The Transmission gallery starts the year i on a lighthearted and jokey note.
Making Out is the work of nine young . artists‘ vibrant explorations ofthe i
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confusions and surprises faced when depicting fut—’ng \i'illCl'lilll-S 11ml ' seeing during hours of boredoru in cement and plastering walls until you,
trying to be independent. Some of the - dramatic skies for their Pllomgl'ill’lllc l schools, workplace and DSS offices. in me morning,
artists know each other. some work portraits. They stand. larger than life l The phoney video documentary by The aim was to have a "am open
together and some have never met but and apparently naked. bathed in 1 Lisa Ward and Rolf Pilsky is an semng '0', mumm‘edia exhib'mons
the references to personal history in an unnatural light. The portraits have an I entertaining send up of fictional Action and events but avoid me sterile com
effort to make sense of the present is . eerie quality and a certain amount of 1 Film Maker, Billy Boy. Shot on interiors mat most gal'e'ies who,
the link that connects the work. irony but you get the irrrpression they location. Billy Boy wanders around (A lot of galleries am quite ' Brigid Teehan combines sound and are sincerely trying to make us believe brandishing an aerosol and a flame intimidating. we “am” to avoid that
vision with a series ofenlarged colour they are there. : thrower while directing his ‘controlled' clinical look and cream an
photographs as if they were the stills 1 An arrangement of old carpet tiles in 1 explosion. His so called brother and atmosphere that’s mend” and
from Love Story. Ski resorts. snow assorted colours are placed around a ! producer solenrnly discuss his work to welcoming s says I'm". swerve had 3
scenes and a portrait ofa bland. blonde ' pillar in the middle of the gallery. camera like a piss-take of The Late ve'y positige response "om the
teenage girl are accompanied by a Taking institutional carpeting. reducing f Show. public People who don’t usually go to
continuous tape of the Love Story it to a domestic scale and mixing the ; Because The Transmission gallery is galleri'es come to Blue ! says Anne
theme recorded from the music box colours to design a rug of ‘C'onran ; known for its commitment to exhibiting Marie '
where the photographs were found, The status‘. Mark Jones makes everyday ' work by young and local artists who 3'“ 'has quickly developed a diverse
tinny music starts up and winds down objects play by the rules of art. But his ' otherwise wouldn’t be seen. there‘s and impressive programme of events {
in an irritating and continuous reminder best idea is using a green plastic chair always an element of risk. Although a and workshops that cover mm video i
of cliched holiday romances and the nicked from his art school canteen and ; few of the pieces are dull. Making Out dance music pedomance an’d ’ ,
sentimental, humorous leftovers of a literally elevated to high art status by i has something thoughtful to say on the merm'me as CV8" as indeual and l
70s teenager. extending the legs. Balancing 3 subject of starting out and getting by on collaborative exhibmons With me 5 Joanne Tatharn and Tom O‘Sullivan precarioust above your head it 3 your own terms. help of a committed band 0' "Hume"
have used tacky Athena posters of cleverly distorts the rrrundane fixtures Making Out IS at [he lransnttssron Sta" Trudi and Anne Marie have also
and fittings we‘re all so aeL‘Ustomed to
stereotypical. beautiful landscapes
Home on the a range i
It looks like any ordinary living room. in one fireside armchair, a middle- f ” aged woman sits facing an anonymous " pair of slippered male feet. The
Gallery, Glasgow until [8 Feb. instigated a numb” 0' ommach projects including artist Chad ' McCail’s work with prisoners in Barlinnie and Saturday morning art classes for children.
Trudi and Anne Marie are adamant in their belief that Edinburgh needs an alternative gallery like Blue not only because of its remit as a multi-media venue but because of the kind of 2 resources and support it offers to artists. ‘We’re very open to proposals and like to give artists a free rein.
We’re in the business of creating
compulsory glass ornament dominates ' ‘I opportunities and taking risks,’ insists :
the foreground and an array of ' - - . “ ' ' ’ . ' ‘ . ’ ~ -.~ ~ 1 Trudi. . . I trinkets, lovingly collected over the . People and Housing in Scotland: Hannah Starkey 5 study of family life As a voluntary organism.“ mm . l
years, has been carefully positioned ; In one photograph, a girl sits in her ’ a panel of judges who chose Starkey charitable status out N The Blue has on the mantlepiece. bedroom surrounded by the clutter of g for the commission. She hopes the always been 'eSllielell by leekoel But look past the familiarity of this a adolescence and the remains of I exhibition will challenge the ideas of foods but Anne Mane and 7"de were sitting room scene and the lives of its 1 childhood — a cuddly toy dog, a gerbil people about their home environments oveleIelmellPV the QenelOSItV 0t inhabitants are gradually revealed. a cage. Another stands with a black cat 3 - whether they come from a peripheral local authentles. busmesses. and
estate, an isolated cottage or middle- tlllsts in the initial Stages- ‘EVerlllnll
in a back garden reminiscent of , class suburbia. ‘We would say there's from the carpet to the wine for private
Brookside Close, contrasting with the
Family traumas, mundane Sunday afternoons in front of the telly,
coffees spilt, life-changing moments ; image of a young boy, crouched in the been quite a change in Scotland’s Views was deflated-z Bel ll Blue is to pondered. Behind the tidy tranquillity 1 green grass on the periphery of a housing over the last row years,’ she survive and build up its reputation as of this image lie countless unsaid % council estate. I says. ‘Everyone recognises there’s a unique and innovative arts
tales: pieces of life etched on 1 Although free from a rose-tinted i still a lot of work to be done, but our organisation they can’t rely on . furniture, carpets and wallcoverings. f gloss, Starkey’s lens leaves it to the 3 environments are changing.’ freebies. ‘0ur immediate need IS £500
Fenwick’s hope is the exhibition will t0 pay the bills but it 0|" application
viewer’s imagination to work out the attract more than the average gallery l0! £10,000 "0!“ Elllllblllllll Dlstllet
jigsaw of social background. Her
The image is one of a series of photographs by art student Hannah
Starkey, winner of a £3000 Scottish ; images are subtle portrayals of home visitor. The greatest challenge is to 90000" l5 succeSSlUl We’ll be alllglll Homes commission to explore the , life, contrasting the rural with urban . get people from all walks of life out of let another Yeah We'll always need lives and homes of Scottish people. i environments of Scots across a range 9 their living rooms, their kitchens, their some tom 0' subsidy but we'll like to Backed by Edinburgh’s Stills gallery, E of ages and classes. Next to her work back gardens and through the front be as financially lodependenl as where the prints are to be exhibited, i will be an evolving mural, made up of door of Stills. (Kathleen Morgan) POSSlble- ll anyone has any money-
Belfast-born Starkey has focused on ; snapshot images taken by exhibition meklflg “lees we" '0“ ‘0 heal "0'"
the "vine rooms. back gardens. ' visitors of their own homes- People and Housing in Scotland is at “m” ‘5‘" W“) kitchens and streets of Scots, from ! Scottish Homes communications suns gallery, Edinburgh trom Sat 18 Out Of the Blue can be contacted on Skye to Edinburgh’s Cralgmillar estate, l manager Dorothy Fenwick was one of r Feb—1 Apr, 0131 556 5204.
The List [0-23 Feb l995 63