“morons Boasties' ‘Gfasgow Toile'
scofrrsrr snow comes HOME The Lighthouse. Glasgow. until Fri 18 Mar
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thrur'xhrliitrun :uirirw .wr'li for tlrr1-‘titurrn 'llll‘ Aliral‘aru‘n
l’fxlllllNli MICHAEL CRAIK Amber Roome, Edinburgh. until Thu 17 Mar .00.
Inn'ortrnr; thr: arr hrti-r‘tural rncthod of (thtllllllll a thicc- <lrn‘.r:n:.ronal fstrurtturr- how a t‘.'.'o
tllllltflltlll inal (lr 11min. l ‘lllllllllllll l)()lll artist Mrchacl (Zrailx '.'.'orks; to a rcrrrrnrantcd lcrn‘ula \.'.'hr:rr>l)*, rihotoorar/hé, ot {lll(f{l(1‘, rrxrsgtrnr; iiurlrlrnrlt; arr: rcriarntod ll‘. oil onto alurmniun‘, rilatr:5;. drau'xinr; attcntion to thc '_lll|l()lll‘ll\, ol ccrtarn l)ll\,’fil(2£il loaturcs; ‘.‘.’lll(‘.ll huilrlindt; possum. Tho rcsrult. (l11l(i(?ll(?ll‘. l><?lll<_l painstakingly concootual and actsthotrcally alluring. also draws; attontron to thr: abstract naturo ol cr'rtarn tunctional olorhcntf‘. of society. Or rathrzr, tho “.‘Jéi‘, that a l)l(f(1lfs(,‘ ‘.|(“.'.’ ol thr: :‘xorld can throw llllfi naturr: into rcliot.
Ufillll} unnanirad buildings; in Paris, [)ussoldorl and l ranklurt as his; tornolatoa. (Zrark focuses lllllllillll‘, on thc sharp origins; of '.‘.llll(l()‘.'.’(?(l f$lll'lél(2t?fi. initith l)ll()l()t]l£ll)lllll(l trorh drttoront anolrzf; and ()(‘(i(if;l()ll£l“\ llfillltl harikoround (}l(?lll(}lllf§ such as; the aim, at; pun: space to l)£ll{ili(3(3 those liuturéd (7()H(?r‘,llt)llf; ot :;riuarc-3; and rcctanglos‘). Usrnr; ll‘élfSklllt} tapo tor hit; straight llllOS, thc- buildings; arr.- llll(?l\ structured. WIlll oach f;(?l'l(?i3 on thr: aarno suliroct hornr; :;in‘.ilarl\,v titlod with a rnoanrndtul duotc lrorh an architoctural J()lllll£il.
lo don dracpor. lit)‘.'.’(?‘.’(7l, and look closer IE3 to he llélllSllXUd hi, thc (lO‘JlllSll dctail. lho whrtc llllUf; of ‘(it all moans; of shutting; out oxriononco. the wall If; clearly tho lll<)ESt adaptahlo No. l i' throatrin to blood into tho wall surrounding; the piece. ‘.‘./llll(} 'lhc- intonor is; of no concern; tho lacadc It; mouthing; lNojo' confounds Wllll an arnhor slash through tho painting; which may hr: urthor a tilll‘lllifllllg sunset or an unfocused loroground hurldrng. Pu/xlcs; lrkc- this; occur throughout and. whilc- thov may not ho hard to solve. thw, only add to the rcorrnontod hcauti,’ of Clark's Work l[)Li‘.l(l Pollock)
freedom t the taca -
Visual Art
CLEAN HArios' PURE HEART - GRAHAM FAGEN
Graham Fagen has long examined the relationship between Scottish and Jamaican cultures, and his own relationship to them. Radio Roselle featured a DJ broadcasting a soundclash of reggae and Scots verse from a boat somewhere in the Atlantic, while Blood Shed was a miniature pirate radio station, this time mixing dub with Robert Burns.
Clean Hands Pure Heart further distils Fagen’s preoccupation with the imagined Scots-Jamaican border country. Instead of juxtaposing Burns with Jamaican music, this time Fagen has merged the two with a video piece here documenting the recording of reggae versions of ‘Auld Lang Syne' and “The Slave‘s Lament’, sung by Ghetto Priest and produced by British dub impressario Adrian Sherwood.
Bearing mute witness to the video work, which hangs high on the wall, is a series of sculptures, each consisting of flowers, fruit or vegetables atop plinths and junkshop tables, or preserved in a vitrine. They look near-real, but a quick touch while the invigilator’s back is turned confirms that they are of bronze. On the face of it, vegetables and cultural cross-pollination have little in common, but these are symbols - a Welsh leek, a tropical pairing of pineapple and orange - and they add some depth, quietly, to the dominating video piece.
Together, this makes for a more subtle examination of the appropriation of other cultures than the simple reggaefication of Burns might suggest. Fagen, working from his own reggae-saturated Ayrshire youth, keeps well out of the cul-de-sacs of post-colonial theory, and never seeks to explicitly analyse his own attraction to Jamaican culture. There is nothing here, either, that condemns the problematic politics of the magpie attitudes of the white and rich toward the tropes of black and poor culture. Instead, these are works of appreciation for our everyday borrowings from supposedly alien vernaculars, and ones that observe and investigate the fluidity of national identity, with a quizzical rather than academic air. (Jack Mottram)
':—‘ ” Ua' 27,". THE LIST 103