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EDUARDO PAOLOZZI AND ADRIAN WISZNIEWSKI
A picture at a statue ol llermes is overlaid with a piece ot modern day machinery cut from a magazine; a 40s trontcover ot Time magazine is torn-up and re-assembled with a picture ot someone else’s nose or chin. .luxtaposing snatches ot ads and pictures at machinery with lrontcovers of politicians and personalities, Paolozzi’s collages are a series of visual collisions.
Entitled Artificial landscapes And Eccentric Ladders this show is an interesting run through Paolozzi’s early collages up to his latest works on paper. Paolozzi, tamed as a sculptor, has made collages since his student days back in the 405. It was in post-war Paris that Paolozzi, receiving old reading matter from ex-Gls, began his Time series ot collages. Though rooted in the collages ot Picasso and Schwitters, they mark the early stirrings of Pop Art. Later works include woodcuts from the “Ills, such as For Charles Rennie Mackintosh, which with their intricate network of lines, put one in mind at the internal workings at a television and designs tor the decoration ol London’s Tottenham Court Road tube station.
From Wiszniewski, who recently
Vllsznlewskl’s Aesthetes Do llought
completed the decoration of the cafe at Glasgow’s Gallery Of Modern Art, there’s A Man Tied-Up In His Own Composition, consisting ol works on paper and paintings. The paintings are like up-dated arcadian landscapes. Men with thick mops ol hair and side partings look wistful against backdrops of bright colour. It’s a silent, seemingly lugubrious land and one that Wiszniewski’s work has been inhabiting tor some time. (Susanna Beaumont)
Eduardo Paolozzi and Adrian Wiszniewski, Talbot Hice Gallery, 650 2211, until 8 Sept, Mon-Sat 10am-5pm; Sun 2-5pm.
*‘k‘k
10 YEARS OF WASPS
More a Festival sketch than re\ iew. all I can say is. what a bleedin' good idea. Taking an out of the gallery can lead to work landing in inappropriate and art- unfriendly placcs. but not so with this inulti-yenue exhibition organised to celebrate ten years ol‘ WASl’S '- Working Artist Spaces — a national organisation providing cheap. subsidised studio space to hundreds of artists.
It is housed in the Fringe yenucs (Assembly Rooms. (iilded Balloon ()ne and Two. Theatre Workshop and l’leasance) where audiences can gel a dose ol‘ contemporary art and design on male to taking in a show or a drink.
Alan ltllpatrlck’s Buttertly
The exhibition is loo \ast to grapple with content here ~ let's simply highlight the organisers' inspired idea. Take the Assembly Rooms -- a beautil’ul building with iinpressiye wall space and a massive captive audience. and what better s'enue esists (or selling work this tnonth'.’ Numerous promoters. artistes and wigs will lose to llash big bucks here like there's no closing night. With quality l‘iguratis'e. abstract and mixed-media hanging in their midst (l’aul Mowat's I’lugs‘ or Philip l)utbie's Lung Dark Night. for instance) — ‘sold' stickers should start appearing quickly. (l’aul Welsh)
I TO Years OI WASPS (Fringe) Assembly Rooms (Venue 3)22(i2-l281 Pleasance (Venue 33) 556 (i550; (iilded Balloon (Venue 38) 226 2 l S l; Theatre Workshop (Venue 2()) 226 5425. until 3| Aug. 9ain—late.
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TERRY ATKINSON
To the uninitiated, Terry Atkinson’s exhibition may not look like much at a retrospective. With only eight pieces ot work on show, emphasis is given to biographical and historical intormation, documenting Atkinson’s lite since the 605.
Though Atkinson is labelled a political artist he is revered in the art world more tor his involvement with Art And Language, a group of 60s artists who helped spark the conceptualist movement. Consequently, his work is an eclectic mixture ol styles, concerned more with theory and new artistic concepts than with producing art objects. A pastel drawing at a woman with a rifle slung over her back, hugging her mother hangs alongside a bright yellow monochrome painting entitled Distemper Yellow axe-head Enola Cay mute 1990(Enola Gay was the name of the plane that bombed Hiroshima).
Though visually uninspiring, the exhibition, which includes many at
ll llle Atkinson’s own theoretical writings, otters a briel history at conceptualism so that even it you don’t come armed with plenty ot background knowledge, you too can be submerged in the ideas. (Tanya Stephan)
Terry Atkinson: Histories, Biographies, Collaborations 1958-1986, Collective Gallery, 2201260, until 31 Aug, Tue—Sat 11am-5. 30pm.
PHOTOGRAPHY REVIEW
BARBARA ESS
Like places and moments l'roin lil'c distorted in a dream. photographs by New York artist Barbara liss are touched with a sense ol' the surreal. Blurred yet strangely radiant. silently they haunt. A low -lying. close-up shot of rough earth and grass becomes a mountainous terrain. In the distance a lone house 'nicnaccs. \\ hile merhead clouds surge across the sky. It's like a child's-eye \ iew: when curled tip in the uinlergrtm'th. a single blade ot’ grass can take on an ominous. merw hclniing power.
And there‘s her photograph ol the front legs ol‘ a dog. Spindly and clawed and coloured a l'urnacc-red. the canine l'amiliar is transl'ormcd into the other- worldly. ()r the sinudgcd l'orm (it a
Untitled work by Ess
naked doll slung across the ground that radiates a yellowy glow and the waterlall that appears as a milk“ httc gush. It‘s liss's use (it a pin-bole camera and colour llllL‘l's that intensities perspecti\ c and charges her work with a bewitching Illllllll()sll_\. lt's l‘ro/cn dreainland. (Susanna Beaumont) I Barbara Ess. .s‘nIIs (ittllL‘l}. 235 9876. until l-l Sept. 'l'ue l-ii
llatn ()[Htll Sat llam 5pm.
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HENRY MOORE
The Printmakers Workshop has really got its act together. As well as running a lively studio tor creative pros and amateurs, it has the vision to show the likes ol llenry Moore back to back with less-established artists. Though this exhibition oi etchings and lithographs doesn’t claim to be a show of Moore’s best, it is a chance to get a taste ot his works lrom 1949 to 1987. Much like looking through an artist’s sketchbook, these prints show Moore’s rougher, more experimental side. Some ol the prints show the lamiliar works at sculpture but there is a range ot styles and techniques. lle dabbled with surreal settings tor his tigures in the 40s, moved into greater abstraction in the 60s and even
Moore’s Mother And Chlld Xll pursued a curiosity about the lite cycle ot sheep resulting in the 1972 etching Sheep-Back View. (Tanya Stephan)
Henry Moore until 7 Sept, Tue-Sat
10am-6pm.
The List no-2: .-\ug won 85