Reviews
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doggerfisher, Edinburgh, until Thu 23 Dec 000
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j,lllllf:’l butterflies. .‘..’i‘:"; the ‘.il)rar:t purples and .elln.'.<; of the paint bleed into one another. blurring a srr‘iling face ifll’) almtratlerl shapes '>f Uilour. l.l.‘;(:‘.‘.’l:‘:rt:. the liolrler, rr‘ore Ililfl.“,l‘.f: toil sculiitaret. rook iike the, might ha.e grown out of the wall. its large ,ellow and bulbous forrns like nuggets of frlol's gold. encrusted onto the sides of the gallery ’iut they. too. appear to flake and fade under the harsh lights of the exhibition space.
The artist. a recent graduate from Glasgow School of Art. demonstrates the fragility of the gallery setting. where paintings ripple and flap from the breeze of a door being opened. and where the surroundings create and affect the condition of the artworks rather than the works creating the atmosphere. There are no glass boxes. safety ropes or barriers here. There is. however. a strange air of domesticity all around the room; in the use of cooking foil. pink disposable tablecloths. tissue-thin paper and the subtle suggestions of feminine practices of watercolour painting. But rather than being obvious in this respect. Osborne's ferriinine ininirnalisrr‘. appears meagre. and the sparseness of the gallery sadly undermines an exhibition of too few works. iIsIa Leaver-Yap)
PAINTING INSTALLATION CHRIS JOHANSON The Modern Institute, Glasgow, until Fri 10 Dec 00
Is Chris Johanson really a bit thick? Or is he pretending to be a bit thick? Or is he satirising the a- bit-thickness of those around him, in the style of someone who is, well, a bit thick? Looking at his installation in the Modern Institute, it’s really rather hard to tell.
The centrepiece of the show is a hastily knocked-up model, cobbled together from offcuts, called ‘Upper Middle Class Suburban Home’. The titular house, a wonky chunk of dumb that nods to Modernist architecture, is a paranoiac’s dream home, dwarfed by the subterranean bomb shelter below. A scrawled note, matching the wilful childishness of the work it purports to illuminate, tells us: ‘This show is about the Modern world’ which, lest we forget, is ‘a vicious world of comodity (sic) and resources’. A big painting, called ‘Universe Painting’, is peppered with gnomic utterances, phrases like ‘Annihalation Gene’ and ‘Mellow Village’ and ‘So very cold’ floating in space. Another, ‘Modern Business’, sees a cloud of day-glo
Visual Art
pollutants issue from the stacks of a factory.
By way of contrast, two smaller works feature figures floating against the abstract geometry of Modernism's broken promise (or maybe they’re just some brightly coloured triangles). In the next room, a drawing of an alien is captioned ‘Please vote, Earth people — I would if I could.‘ Next to it, an earth person replies: ‘The main reason I am voting is because George Bush terrifies me.’ Back to those questions. To give Johanson the benefit of the doubt, the works here match na'i've methods with na'i've politics, questioning the pseudo-political nostrums of our day — those Michael Moore-isms glibly repeated by Naomi Klein-ists — by presenting them as childish daubs. More likely, though, the faux-na'i'vité is not quite as faux as it might appear, and Johanson’s deliberately juvenile style is as heartfelt as his adoption of that ultimately pointless grab-bag of ideas - Globalisation is bad! Let’s not wear Nike! etc! - that passes for geo-political analysis among folk who can point out the mess we’re in, but fall short of suggesting a meaningful method of cleaning it up. (Jack Mottram)
MIXED SHOW V ’ t'l ' KlNGDOM DOJewelled array of consumerist stuff .‘xaoe \
Market Gauery, Glasgow, unti|sat11 Dec through every day. but then again. the iiuotiriian
0... object does not have to be made of MDT.
SCquture is the star of the show. even when ' weakened by aiming for the dull little categur I. of installation. Nike Sawas' flock of delicate. clear glass miniature farningos makes ar: u'iIikeI, .'.‘:"Tt:' roosting ground of Duke Street. Sath Leec'nes liquid glass. becomes solid but fragile T"£1"fsl;§:":IT'. fOrms. haunted b1. the absence of their astia Ontological property — pink. Steuer‘ G::"tarsk Gamma /120()1r raises issues of sex ar‘rr rteaf" “."a'. are met and dexeloped in the :at first, 'rrore traditional looking busts of Ulii Knaii. something abOut her use of beatitir’.iii, subtle rut Sickly hues. and the she eifcrtressl, bridges representation and abstraction that t/L'." Saga“; and unsettling: a canny at‘f} pecan”, 03 that envelops ths Kngdov: Alexander Kemez,
The Market Gallery's Krngdorrr exhibition should be subtitled Legion for they are indeed a demonic many. The WOrk of 17 internationals hangs. srts. perches and pecks at this ramshackle ‘anti-white- cube' space like a gang of gargoyles. There are highs and lows in every group show. but a refreshing creativin characterised by self- assuredness permeates and unifies the work. There is a distinct lack of /ack in the works shown; an aesthetic of excess is presented levidenced in the paintings of Dawson. Dring and Emmerichl. rather than the all too familiar obtuse Signposts demarcating nothingness and the universal emptiness of signification. This might make it difficult to separate these objects from the
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