Art
COLLAGES & PAINTINGS PHILIP REEVES AT 70 - RETROSPECTIVE Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sat 15 Dec 00..
Edge Of The Loch, 1997
Widely regarded as the father of printmaking, the Glasgow-based artist Philip Reeves is enjoying his first major retrospective exhibition of collages and paintings at the Talbot Rice Gallery. Running parallel with a retrospective of prints at Glasgow’s Hunterian Art Gallery, the exhibition celebrates Reeves’ 70th birthday and more importantly, his contribution to art in Scotland over the past 40 years.
Spread over two floors, the exhibition chronicles Reeves’ response to the landscape, with his most recent works located on the lower level. From the urban to the rural, the visual language of Reeves’ work communicates a sense of calm serenity. The cool, blue tones of Edge Of The Loch (1997) evokes a quiet stillness of a typical loch-side scene. In Assemblage (1999), deep hues of ocean blue-painted paper curls beneath the frame to suggest movement and tidal flow. The more abstract, Lulworth (1990) reminiscent of Sean Scully geometric forms, reveals Reeves’ accomplished technique in composition.
On the upper level, Reeves’ earlier works are more subtle and less abstract. The three detailed collages of Landscape From The Downs (1973), Noctural Shore (1962) and Cloud Over Malvern resemble aerial photographs while Chalk Cliff (1963) obtains a unique luminosity due to its green-glass tones. Whether prints, painting or collage-making, Reeves’ position as one of Scotland’s most important artists is clearly illustrated here.
(Helen Monaghan)
DnEélcngSIGN Onnki‘s cigarette packet complete with Lighthouse Glasgow until Sat 2 fO'd'OUt asmray is inspired by the exile Feb 000 ’ ’ of smokers to the pavements outside
their office blocks. Others are incomprehensible. Gento Matsumoto's ‘ reworking of a ten-pin bowling score card. embellished with rather clinical soft porn. is oddly intended to keep the minds of adolescent bowlers on the minutiae of their game. The best pieces on show make simple tweaks to the object in hand. N enhancing their aesthetic appeal or improving usability. From Keiko Hirano's tissue dispensers — unassuming bevelled cardboard blocks aimed squarely at those who drool over their Muji catalogues — to Kaoru Mende's rather whimsical rustic take on matches. replacing the usual strips of blonde wood with twigs.
There are failures too. particularly when the designers attempt to redesign things that are intrinsically resistant to radical reworking. but these are few and far between. Re Design is. however. a rewarding look at the way design has an impact on our lives. Even at the most minute level and. thanks to the step-by-step
Terunobu Fujimori: Re Design of Goldfish Scoops
The Lighthouses latest is dedicated to the everyday. with Japanese architects. product designers and graphic artists redesigning household objects and updating the familiar. In fact. much of the work on show is devoted to putting a new spin on things so commonplace. that we are insights accompanying the various hardly aware that they are designed at prototypes. the show provides an all. invaluable insight into the design Some are genuinely useful. Takuya process. (Jack Mottram)
PHOTOGRAMS ANNIE HALLIDAY: TRANSLUCENT EXPOSURES Street Level, Glasgow, until Fri 22 Dec 000
Annie Halliday transforms banal objects into elusive simulacra
Photograms are photographs created without a camera or lens. Annie Halliday. a scientist turned artist. has developed a fascination with the process and the potential of the medium to push the dichotomy of absence presence in photography even further. By exposing the ethereal. intangible details within Pyrex dishes. wine glasses and milk bottles. the photogram transforms banal objects into elusive yet recognisable simulaCra. Halliday's fixation with transparency adds to the sterile fragility of 2- and 3D images of glass. light. dew. condensation and ice. presented between sheets of perspex. or against mirrors on crisp white walls.
She describes a work such as In The Dark as a “life drawing made with water and light'. She lines up milk bottles like Russian dolls and makes images of a melting sheet of ice read like a series of sparkling aerial maps. Even car windows. all opaqtie screens and warped heating wires. appear delicate and nostalgic but for the juxtaposmon of anachronistic tax disks and garage stickers — incongruous signs of now. captured within a medium conducwe to antiquated suggestion and ambiguity. (Susannah Thompson‘i
ARCHITECTURE EUGEN LAUBE - COLOUR AND TEXTURE The Royal Fine Art Commission, Edinburgh, until Fri 7 Dec 0000
If it seems strange that an organisation with a remit to promote architecture in this c0untry should show work by architects from eastern Europe. then the Manifesto Foundation's latest exhibition gives a healthy explanation as to why.
Through his writings and his buildings. Eugen Laube (1880~1967) attempted to create a style of architecture which reflected his fledgling nation's sense of self as Latwa fought for independence. His response was based initially on the employment of natural building materials and finishes rather than any fundamental re-ordering of structure. As a set of double-exposed photographs make clear. Laube's early work in Riga evokes both the landscape and wildlife of Latvia to parallel the early works of Saudi.
Unfortunately. the exhibition t0uches only briefly - presumably due to lack of space — on the debate that caused Laube eventually to turn away from this national romanticism to a more ‘international' neo-eclecticism. It is clear. however. that a vital argument took place at that time about the way in which architecture could help define Latvia’s image of itself. Not only does this exhibition compel you to visit the Riga which grew out of this debate. but also to see a similar discussion taking place in Scotland today. iTim Abrahamsl
PAINTING COMMUTING: NEW PAINTINGS BY ANNA LOBNER
Goethe Institute, Glasgow, until Fri 14 Dec .00
Although flying has lost much of its appeal of late. these paintings by German artist Anna LObner successfully rekindle the exCitement of the night flight. There is an echo of the glamorous yet naive work of the late Liz Arnold. as Looner paints Glasgow. Brussels and Dusseldorf like sparkly treasures revealed on the edge of Sight. Like Arnold. LObner is fond of unusual perspectives. as demonstrated in City Like A UFO and Highway Like Veins.
Unfortunately. the excitement of these night scenes is not Sustained thrOughout the exhibition: the View from daylight flights. such as Bright Light Reflecting and Almost Dover are rendered in creamy pastoral shades and a looser style. Elsewhere. LObner has chosen to display works from her recent public art proiect. Elm '3 End. which involved stenCilling the stumps of 50 diseased eln‘s in Kelvingrove Park with their dates of birth and death. These mOre natural works lack the strange yi3ion of the inSled nightscapes and should probably have been shown in a separate exhibition. (Sarah LowndeSi
Highway Like Veins
2S? \Iot - '3 Dec. 2(31“ THE LIST 85