DRAV‘JI NC
THE JERWOOD DRAWING PRIZE
Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, until Sat 21 Feb .00
Last year, the Jerwood Drawing Prize show contained much that, however loose you like your genre boundaries, could not be described as drawing. This was a surprise, but the inclusion of installation, collage and multimedia work made for a good discussion of what, exactly, constituted drawing.
This year the judging panel has trawled the entries with a more conventional eye, preferring good old-fashioned marks on a surface to more outré definitions of draftsmanship. There is, though, much here that doesn’t make the grade. There are too many photorealistic pencil portraits that, however accomplished, reek of the GCSE coursework portfolio; too many artists fall back on the faux- naif, childlike scrawl, and there is some distinctly sub-Shrigley cartooning. That said, it is easy to let the eye skip over the filler and home in on the wealth of worthy drawing.
Paul Brandford’s Snatch takes first prize, capturing in blurred motion the moment a protester is set upon by riot police, while second goes to Jeanette Barnes, again a dab hand at capturing movement, with a time- lapse collapse of the daily commute. The student prize winners are
PAINT No PADRAIG TIMONEY
Modern Institute, Glasgow, until Fri 30 Jan 0.
SONY) artists spend a career honing a style. i‘ez'rorking Visual
Fellini’s Women: During Shooting of ‘8 1/2’ 1963, from Secchiaroli’s photograph by Stella Whalley
stronger. Joshua WF Thompson’s The Age of Reason 1 is a measured examination of scientific observation and our tendency to anthropomorphise the animal kingdom, looking like a page torn from a medieval bestiary. Caroline Edward’s Creeping Bruise is a delicate fractal of tiny flowers and dashed half-circles, demanding the closest inspection.
Prizes aside, Miranda Whall’s Paradise Place stands out, with its lacy filigree of shock juxtapositions.
then‘es over the years. calcifying key concepts. Not so Padraig
limoney He has 1 ainted abstracts. taken photographs; ’ ' .-
esoteric actions include a trip to Jerusalmn to collect spiders' My ‘4
'.'.'ebs. anof"er jaunt took lllll‘ to Los Angeles to buy blank s;
vdeo cassettes. His f'iye works in the Modern Institute. though
at: paintings. nught be ll‘lSiElk(}lI for a group show. M First. there are two hefty canvases Tinned Tomatoes is busy _‘
with swirls and blobs of brox'rn and orange. overlaid with 1
blocks of back. It is ;ust possible to discern the outline of a tin can. Japanese Lapdogs is another layered work. this llll‘O feattir ng tin‘e '.'.Ioi‘n Disney characters and a reclining nude.
Plastic Lil/tips sees coils of Wire doused in paint and la/ily affixed to the canvas. And that seems to be the key here:
PHOTOGRAPHY
Tncnefs scattershot approach isn't down to a short attention ... span: he‘s posztioning himself as Artist With a capital 'A'. asking
his audience to consider this role more than the work itself. this could be seen as a get-out clause — Plastic Lumps comes dangerously close to beutg crap. rather than being a work about work that con‘es dangerously close to being crap -- but Tin‘oney is s ) consistent in his inconsistency, his blase roll-call of references is so n‘easured. that he pulls it off.
(Jack Mottram.
Anne Shaw’s Child 1 shows a corpse poking out from under a curtain, in violently applied charcoal and chalk. Sue Dirkin also impresses, with layered suggestions of skeleton and bone, drawn on glass. DJ Roberts’ storyboard-style examinations of trashy architecture is another highlight.
As a snapshot of contemporary drawing practice, then, the Jerwood show works well, even if you have to dig to uncover the real gems.
(Jack Mottram)
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Bernina, 2003
BALTHASAR BURKHARD Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 8 Feb
The snow. clouds and trees of SWit/erland are the focus of Balthasar Burkhard's lens. Shooting from the air and the ground. he captures the lonely isolation and the awesome beauty of the SWiss enVirons.
His large. black and white prints of the snow—covered peaks of the Alps are dramatic and looming narratives
that inVite you step in and leave a few footprints. But they
also leave you disorientated and disengaged as you struggle to work With the scale and retrieve the beauty of the image. rather than fixating on the danger of such inclement weather conditions. One moment you feel like yodelling. the next as though altitude sickness is kicking in. It's the same With his dark, portentous skies that issue no promise of calm —- rather threats of Violence. But they are serenely beautiful. Perhaps the most magical of Burkhard's prints are the forests With paths that lead into dark. (lappled gulleys where trees stand sentinel and waterlalls gush. These conjure up the woods and forests of fairytales. albeit those of the Brothers Gi'iiiiiii.
It is this duality in Burkliard's work that makes his images inscrutable and memorable. One glance is
encliantment. the next a sharp reminder that nature does
Plastic Lumps
not belong to us. (Isabella Weu'l
‘\.l.l" 5‘ : at
Art
MIXED MEDIA
THE DIRECTORS’ CHAIR II
Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh, until Wed 28 Jan 0...
Open Eye's shr w The Directors Chair // offers a pick'n'mix of contemporary Scottish art. In their bright. airy new premises. works chosen by directors of public and private galleries. such as the DCA's Katrina Brown. Glasgm-r Print Studio's .lohn Mackechnie and the Collective Gallery's Sarah Munro. hang on the walls. Their brief was to select work by an artist who they consider to be exciting. and the genuine but in no way sycophantic enthusiasm that comes acr >ss is good to hear.
Neapolitan by Adrian Wiszniewski
And Just a quick glance around reveals the great diversity of work being created by Scottish artists at the moment. Krst \r‘."'iitep's pencil-drawn lamin album series in which young and old are sketched with eguaily precise grotesgueness makes way for Maren l..e\.ren's haunting paintii‘g. Ocean ~ Scarred. The abstract piece worked and layered with ‘.-./hztes and bluey greys : ffers a textured \.'lf§!()lt in which you (Zétl‘. ose yourself to the mist dark depths.
One of the pieces to stand out most stroneg is dra" Wis/nie‘.'rski's I\i’eapo/i!ar: With its cool. muted coEours. boldly ()llt'lllUU. It is htii‘g next to (tl‘.()l.'l(?t of his paintings sl‘owing the other end of his works specti'tim - Lunar Buds. Gariin lime am orange fronds and flowers splurge out of a vase in ‘.‘.’||(l abandon, and ‘.‘.ll‘|l(? it is interesting to see the contrast. it looks soiiie\.'.'7'tat crude next to the more subtle. understated piece.
There are ais > some interesting pieces bx. Kenny Hunter. .John Beflany and Alan Shipway. aong \.'.r'tl‘ \.*.'ork from l‘.(‘.“.‘.’(‘,l artists stic"
as Katie Done Hath Hedges
1 THE LIST 77