scuwrunii DUANE HANSON -
SCULPTURES OF LIFE
National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, until Sun 23 Feb 000
The Tourists by Duane Hanson have been sightseeing at the National Gallery of Modern Art for some years now, duping the public into believing that they had found bona fide, kitsch American tourists resplendent in polyester and Hawaiian shirts. But they were hyper-real bronze, polyvinyl painted models that did not move or blink no matter how hard you tried to catch them out. Now, 30 other models of ordinariness have joined them to create a static homage to the middle American and the perversions of fashion and career like. So the models are not always choice that can plague ordinary duplicates of real people but people. stereotypes painted by Hanson. Hanson chose his subjects from Thus Rita the downtrodden the ordinary gene pool that most of waitress with her chipped nail
(C) THE ARTIST'S ESTATE
Sunbather, 1 987
But there is fun to be had in musing at how well Hanson has mimicked reality. From the shadowy stubble on the men’s faces to the ripple of cellulite underneath nylon,
us swim and sink in. There are no varnish and wistful gaze, Tony the there is an immaculate attention to glamorous beauties or displays of tired, depressed deliveryman, Matt detail. Even the clothes restraining wealth on show here, just the hard the bored policeman, the obese the folds of fat accentuate the knocks of life. Hanson used real tourists and the extremes of life reality. You can imagine when the peOple for the moulds, though the modelled by the aborted baby in a exhibition closes the models all person chosen did not necessarily trash can, the old down-and-out stretch, crack a smile and comment occupy this role in real life: failing to and the drowned, mutilated corpse on all the weird people that have find a suitably macho cowboy, are all Hanson’s rather depressed paraded before them all day. At least Hanson used a joiner who fitted his take on ordinary life. It would seem now, thanks to Hanson, they all have
ideal of what a cowboy should look there is no joy in being ordinary. a life less ordinary. (Isabella Weir)
pi+OvO<;;’;/\Lx-{V L'v‘l \V/‘DFC NU Gallery of Modern Art, Giasgow’ until Sun 16 Feb ..
Pass G asgox. 's GEtllC-l‘, of Modern Art at any pOint on the .'.'<:-ekene and can't axed the dozens of adolescents who surround t. Cour).r sed largely of goths. moshers and skateboarders. fine". "ave become as familiar to the area as the askex.’ tra“I<: cone 21<l()r'.'ti."g ‘v.‘.’eirngton's head.
Iii/hat T"€:- (3X"il:iirt')rt arms to do is enc0urage this group r‘sde {it‘Il gut} Inen‘ a ‘.'o.ce. 0‘. er several months the vrsual art convert, N..arts unlorkeo .vrth the young people to create intotogratzt‘rc self-portraits. ‘.’r(l(;-() diaries and. most 'tt‘;;:)rta".t‘,. eeaeiep rinks .vith tne staff to create sustainable sen'rces for It‘.(} group to use.
But the p":>t<;grap't'<: and urdeo works don't fully succeed in mues‘r'gat mg the Issues "arsed. The video piece in particular is were an exair~r:ie of the effects of reality TV on this generation. ' mt." rr‘cst f}".'ll‘r{l conscious perforrrtances as opposed to . ’ V ‘ « ‘ ~ rieartfeLI confessions. Many talk of thew persecution at the Hillend 'tands of other groups. though few the irony of their own
. . . , . . . . . PHOTOGRAPHY prejudices agaznst others. A more complex exploration. _ through (irrect questioning, rr‘ight have proved more OAS ED'NBURGH
inforrr‘atr.'e artri .'.'()ul(l have made most break down and question at Eeast their own opinions if not certain cultural barriers. Sorry to revert to stereotype but this exhibition by German \.‘~./hat the protect has succeeded in deing is creating long- photographer Martin Fengel is one of the most humourless term links '.'.’l°til the group and staff at GOMA through an exhibitions l have ever seen. During a four-week stint in education prograir‘it‘e. Already planned are classes in Video Edinburgh. Fengel recorded his impressions but admitted
City Art Centre, Edinburgh, until Sat 22 Feb 0
production. DJ skills and art. all with the intent of developing he found it hard because ‘everything was beautiful. but not creativitg.’ in a positive alternative way. (Sorcha Dallas‘l
real (I prefer it the other way round). Everything reminded me of an experiment‘. What? Well Fengel can rest assured that the collection of 17 prints are far from beautiful and very closely resemble an experiment. A disastrous one.
In his attempts to get at the ‘real’ Edinburgh he has chosen fragments to photograph in close up. trying at some kind of visual patterning. For example yellow plastic dustbins stacked up on sale; two light bulbs hanging from a pine—panelled room or rolls of turf in piles. Fascinating material. eh?
Sometimes this kind of stylised photography of the everyday can really work. Just not here. Fengel manages to make the ordinary appear even more ordinary than it really is. And the tatty prints don’t help. What look like computer prints of enlarged scans are pasted up, leaving their edges to get scuffed and the colour to fade in the low quality Giving youth a voice material. (Ruth Hedges)
Art
MIXED MEDIA
SUE PALMER: A CLOSER LOOK Lloyd Jerome Gallery, Glasgow, until Wed 12 Feb 0..
The mainstay of this exhibition — the artist's first solo show since 1977 — is a series of large-scale digital prints depicting intricate organic forms such as pond weed. pollen, feathers and insect wings. At larger-than-life size. these images look like fragments blown-up from a microscopic slide. confusing our sense of scale. By doing this. Palmer presents nature's minutiae as abstract land and seascapes. her vision fluctuating between romantic representation of these flurd. chaotic natural forms and intense. cool scientific observation.
Intricate organic forms
Palmer's earlier work centred on textile designs which are represented in the permanent collections of galleries such as the V&A. The fact that this exhibition is her first significant show for many years suggests she sought to present a mini-retrospective Or showcase ‘new directions'. Although the prints themselves ‘fit‘ with the overall look of the space. there is a sense of an overcrowded salon-style hang in the sheer amount on show.
She intersperses the numerous digital prints with one or two Oil-on- linen paintings and some large charcoal-on-paper drawings. none of which compare favourably to the digital prints. And while a line of continuity can be seen between the works. the non-digital works on linen and paper appear notably dated in c0ntrast to the slick. gloss‘y prints.
(Susannah Thompson)
16 ~30 Jan 2003 THE LIST 77