THOMAS FLOBSOHUETZ
Stills Gallery. Edinburgh until 5(1127 July.
Large photographs of pinkish skin and limbs hang from the walls: skin with a light down of hair. a stretch of flesh crowded with curls of dark body hair. a mottled yellowy ankle. The walls of Stills Gallery have been made flesh with the work of German artist Thomas Florschuetz.
Florschuetz photographs his own bare body. and in this. his first solo exhibition in Britain — held simultaneously with a show of his Plexus works at Site Gallery in Sheffield — Florschuetz shows a collection of photographs entitled Suburbia.
It’s intriguing work. in part because the photographs abstract the flesh from identifiable body form. It‘s clearly a body. but it‘s not always clear which bit. Florschuetz also zooms in on his flesh and blows-up the image. Whereas close-ups of the human face are
A triptyclr oi limbs: Florschuetz's Triptychon
commonplace. flesh in detail is thought perhaps unsavorrry or at the least disconcerting. Hairiness is animal. body flesh unmade-up and close-up is marked and mottled. Here a hairy flesh becomes a forest-like mass of tangled undergrowth. some strands of hair clumped together with dew-drop like collections of moisture. But it has a strange beauty. the twists of hair ever wayward and elegant.
Yet. frequently forming diptychs and triptychs. the cibachrorne photographs are a kind of homage to flesh and its intricacies. be it the cross-hatching of fine lines that incise soft and supple skin. skin rippled by veins or a slightly parched and yellowed heel. And as the high altarpiece to skin and limbs. Untitled. comprising five photographs of a foot overlaid with an ankle. hangs at the far end of the gallery space.
Florschuetz‘s work is at first disconcerting as limbs appear cropped from their body and flesh is shown in the raw. Or perhaps. more to the point. it is that Florschuetz presents his body as ifto a lover‘s cruising eye: close-up. intimate and not always in full or in focus. (Susanna Beaumont)
EXHIBITION SPACE @ JAVA
Java Internet Gale, Glasgow. Glasgow’s been looking like a town in need oi a new gallery space ior contemporary art oi late. So it’s good timing that Java, an lntemet caie, has just opened with a new exhibition space, willing and able to lead the appetite oi any culture ‘mulcha’ not racked with technophobia.
Organised, curated and seli-iinanced by iour artists, nettle Flynn, Therese lynch, Mil liothera and Iseult Tlmmermans, their ambitious aim is to develop an exhibition programme capable oi reilectlng the diversity oi cultural practice in Glasgow. Committed to utilising the gallery space as a meeting point tor all those involved in the city’s mushrooming arts scene, irorn dancers, poets, musicians, iiimmakers and artists, the aim is to generate cross-discipline discussions and new artistic partnerships.
The space, while by no means large, is suitably architecturally idiosyncratic. The current show Silrlry works well witlrln the space. Showing the work oi iour artists, it’s Therese lynch’s into boxes which
All eyes: a photo by Mil liothera
catches the eye as well as the nose. llaily a trash rainbow trout is suspended irom the ceiling and illuminated by a small light bulb. At the end oi the day the iish is encased in a perspex box and covered with ice and the square oi paper that collected the drips oi blood is hung on the wall. Future shows include Grop ieaturing the work oi eighteen artists, it will showcase eclectic approaches to photography. Also linking up with Java’s Internet iacilitles each exhibition has its own web-site promising a virtual art show with every actual show. Also planned is a workshop on cornlc art, coinciding with Parade an exhibition oi comic art to mark the launch oi a new Glasgow comic art magazine. (John Beagles)
BRIDGET RILEY
(i/(tsgmv Print Studio. Glasgow until Sui 6 July.
Some of the paintings and prints on show at Glasgow Print Studio might make you feel sick. No. not because they depict scenes of moral bankruptcy. the like of which only our most revered politicians could surpass. but because the oscillating stripes. dots and wavering lines of Bridget Riley's an fill the walls. Internationally respected as one of the originators of ()p Art. this mini-r'etrospective features works by Riley from I964 to the present day.
A varied and impressive collection of work has been gathered. highlighting her continued intelligent examination of the possibilities of painting. Breaking painting down into its constitutive parts. her methodical. frequently mechanical process utilises a vocabrriary of iconic forms — the dot and the stripe — with which she builds a painting. exploring how colours relate and how an illusion of depth is created on the painting’s surface.
Looking at her paintings is a very self-conscious activity. Riley creates a disorientating optical experience.
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19 Greys: a print by lllley irom 158
which has frequently led to her work being read as visual one-liners and gimmicky tricks. However. in the best pieces Burn and For Gerrjr'. this ‘trick' is utilised irr a tnore subtle manner.
Often talked about as being exclusively concerned with creating a sensation. an emotional response. Riley‘s work is much more than this. While the viewer might feel something. might be literally moved to giddiness or nausea for example. this is not an end in itself. Rather it is a calculated tool. which the artist strategically deploys as a way of moving the viewer into a more questioning reading of the painting. (John Beagles)
SEVEN X 3
18 King Street, Glasgow until Sat 13 July. With its iirst anniversary rapidly approaching, Glasgow Independent Studio’s second oi three summer shows points to a bright and productive iuture tor the city’s temporary gallery project. Established in July last year, the space is currently occupied by over twenty recent graduates working in painting, printmaking and sculpture. in Seven X 3, six artists present a flawed but iundamentally satislying experience.
It still Iiie equals a tasty morsel, Paul Teliord’s selection oi irult, glass and wood will be good enough to eat. Although the style is uniashionable - his paintings would comiortably hang alongside 17th century Dutch still lites - the technical accomplishment is impressive. Finely drawn, strong on composition and atmosphere, it is no surprise that almost every work was sold within days oi opening.
From Teliord’s calm and timeless studies, enter contemporary culture
Two Portraits: Andy by Jessica '10an
via a series oi jarring images by llugh Gillan. In saturated red, orange and yellow, his predominantly iemale iigures could iture on MTV or the latest Shaman video. Allen Contact, Techno-Head and Sire Game From Cyberspace challenge the normalisation oi the iantastic sali- images created by technology and club culture. Showing products rather than personalities, Gillan captures bleached-out, soulless hyper-reality on canvas.
More low-key but equally oblique, Toby Paterson’s single contribution is deceptively slight. Place To Be 2 is the point where a pale blue sky meets a tall building. Choosing clean lines, Paterson cruises through iamillar ieellngs oi displacement and urban desolation but still llnds chinks oi light. cool and minimal, a wry smile hides behind his sharp perspectives.
Going the remaining participants little lustlce, several portraits by Graeme Sirarp hit the mark. Garollne Kirsop’s environmental art is ten and creepy and Patsy Forde's installation Me, Tlrenr at its transiorls the space with aplomb. (Paul Welsh)
The List 28 Jun-ll Jul 1996 UT