Art
DRAWING AND PAINTING ILANA HALPERIN & SALLY
OSBORN doggerfisher, Edinburgh, until Sun
13 Jan .0
‘What can you possibly say about a volcanic eruption?’ muses Glasgow- based artist llana Halperin in one of her ‘environmental anecdotes’ drawn from visits to San Sebastian and the island of Stromboli. Underneath, she provides a helpful list of numbered responses: ‘It was too true. I was afraid. There is nothing more beautiful’.
But despite the artist’s first-hand knowledge of volcanic activity, the viewer is left thinking that these responses are a) banal, to say the least, and b) do nothing to enliven your own personal mental image of the earth’s core oozing molten lava.
In fact, Halperin’s line drawings and texts, drawn in faux naive style, seem consciously to reduce the drama of their subject matter. Halperin’s technical approach is reminiscent of David Shrigley, but lacks that artist’s acerbic and surreal wit. Indeed, Halperin’s strongest piece is the least
VIDEO MIXFD MEDIA
NWSP6 - HELEN MCCRORIE AND
STUART GURDEN
mediated: a cibachome print of a satellite dashing across a pink streaked summer sky.
Sally Osborn’s work is easily the more successful of the two. The more urban bent of Osborn’s undergraduate work has veered towards an exploration of natural themes through residencies at Tramway and more recently at Grizedale Forest. Here Osborn shows a series of drawings and collages inspired by flora and fauna, filtered through a darker sensibility, exemplified by a wall painting of a headless stag.
Osborn’s delicate filigree paintings and collages on magazine pages are lovely, traced with circles and shell- like forms. The use of a hole punch on a red leather piece adds to the sense of the mechanical colliding with the natural. But this work also owes a debt to a more established Glasgow-based artist, namely Claire Barclay, who has been making work using similar themes and materials for several years. Despite this, the work is beautifully made and possesses many distinct qualities of its own. (Sarah Lowndes)
PAIN I INC
CALLUM INNES
Untitled 2001 by Sally Osborn
lngleby Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sat 22 Dec 0..
Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sat 22 Dec 00.
Blots on the landscape and on local econorr‘res were predicted when superrr‘arkets and out of—toxzn shopping centres started to appear on the map. Two decades on. the
proof of thrs prediction Is the endless. depressrr‘rg srglrt of boarded—up shop fronts closed for business forever along
local high streets.
Helen lecCrorIe nas vrdeoed thrs decline In order to shov; how the careful planrrrrrg of corr‘rr‘unrtres has gone seriously ant/ry. She travels along the front and back of an Ayrshire high street to present this familiar sight. creating a palpable sense of cerrrmunrty loss. But the scale of her conxrctrons Is too big to be presented on three small screens. It would have made her piece more Interestrng had she qutaposed It
with a Supermarket comrrrunrty.
Showing alongside this Is Stuart Gurden, who also highlights the way systerrrs do not remain static but adapt or break. whether they are astral or earthly Gurden Subverts meaning throughout hrs lt‘tlllllt‘OdlEI piece. It Involves graffiti artists. the male asteroid Eros that has been mapped Out using romantic character names and Gurden's
desire to get a Bollywood actress called Shama
Immortalrsed on this planet. rrrakrng do in the rneantrrne With her name being graffrtred across a r.)lanetarrum. Confused? You will be. Gurden's work Is amusing and clever and even If you are not durte sure what's going on. that's OK. To appreciate these works you need persistence
of vrsron. (Isabella WeIrI
Helen McCrorie’s video works create a palpable
88THE LIST till-2" '
Cai trm lnnes exercIses a strict quality control over hrs w0rk. (ft)$§it()‘,zt‘.g Etll‘,’iilll‘§.} that does not exceed hrs expectations. He primes. paints and then rubs away with turpentine to produce minimalist paintings tnat deliberately harbour no meaning In \.'.'l‘:(2Il \.'re\.'.rers car‘ anchor thew Imaginations. YOU
can 'Inagrrre lrrnes turprng a canvas Into oblrvron because of
Its I’a:l;rre to please. But thrs technrgue must neutralise hrs nrhrlrstrc perfectionrsm. creating a more alkaline objectivity that allows him to frnrsh a painting.
The paint-rigs n this exnrbrtron are (lrffrCuit and stark Images: a tot of >allast assummrons have to be rettrsoned In order to find a favourable opinion. They all possess Similar dynamics. but the strrpprng process Is more effectrve In some than others. The better paintings evoke trace memorres of the frne gram of muslin or the tides print as It ripples aCross sand Or even ravulets of dirty water runnrng down glass. No mean feat when you consrder the simplicity of the process.
But there Isn't enough of an Impact on the senses to release any lasting ernotron. Personal Imagination Is stronger than anything trrggered by the visual stimuli In thrs exhibition. Too much of the same produces a stubborn rnertness In the I. renter who can only make up so much fiction for one exhibrtrol‘. Nexertheless. InIIes Isa respected artist and his work Is grizz'avs rrth considering. 'Ilrrs exnrbrtron lust has too
sense of loss urticl‘ of illit- saint}. Ilsabella \"Verr
MIXED MEDIA RACHEL MIMIEC & TATIANA MARIA LUND Tramway (Upper Foyer and Project Room), Glasgow, until Sat 22 Dec .00
The sound of scuttling insects emanates from behind heavy funereal drapes. The sound is intriguing and repellent but I'm not giving the game away. Like her first. Mimiec’s second installation is knowingly stagy. Work is arranged In the space like props at a mocked-up crime scene. A chair. suspended mid-air by glossy coloured paper chains casts eerie reflections onto the wall — Houdini has left the building. chair and chains are left hanging. A hasty departure is signalled by a rolled carpet. oozing theatrical glittery blood beneath two sombre portraits of the same scene. devoid of colour and framed in black.
Lund’s space exploration
The black boxes of the upper foyer give way to the cool white Cube of the Project Room. Where lvlimiec is all Cluedo and ‘murder in the library'. Lund's work is a study in Rothko—esdue high modernism. with an intergalactic twrst. Lurnrnous colour and delicate tonal gradation make space exploration seem romantic. Lund's pseudo-science is meticulously presented here. A small TV appears to proiect information through a flickering screen — barely vrsible white on white letters are transmitted to create an embossed. wall- mounted Information card. detailing the nature of the interference. radiation and static to be heard htl/Jlltg away in the background. (Susannah Thompson)