Reviews
ltl‘ SIDINCY NEW WORK AT GLENFIDDICH 2005 Glenfiddich Distillery, Dufftown, until Wed 31 Aug
The smell of whisky tints the air in the late summer evening. It’s known as the angel share — the percentage that evaporates into the ether during distillation. Maybe that’s why there’s a faintly heady atmosphere at the artists’ breakfast the next morning. Every Friday the artists in residence gather together while one provides breakfast traditional to their country and gives a talk on their work. The Friday that I’m there, I’m lucky that it’s Taiwanese Chen Hui-chiao’s turn. Yum.
Eight international artists from around the world - Taiwan, Canada, Germany, Argentina, US, France and Scotland - are here for three months, staying in small ex-worker cottages at the Glenfiddich distillery. They get their accommodation, a small fee and a bicycle. The simple lifestyle is demonstrably conducive to working - they’re the most relaxed bunch of artists I’ve ever seen. And they’ve been busy too.
Jochen Flinzer shows me a camping roll mat that he’s embroidered with all the names of players in the Tennent’s Scottish Cup final from Celtic and Dundee United. He’s sewn them in the colours of their teams —
:Dl SIGN
Jochen Flinzer with Big Cup Final
green, white and orange - and the back reveals a criss- crossing web of abstract patterning; on the floor he lays out his series inspired by the Scottish Daily Star ‘real life problem’ photo story. Cutting out the speech bubbles, Flinzer has put them over tartan patterns, so that all that comes out of their mouths are different codes. He’s wearing an ‘Ooooo Matron!’ T-shirt that the fellow artists bought him for his birthday from the local Asda. The kitsch innuendo is clearly a favourite theme.
Flinzer is hanging his images in Rose Cottage — an abandoned space that has all the original 705 decor from when it was last inhabited. Alison Watt discovered the house and was delighted to find the faded patterned wallpaper. When I was there she was preparing to hang her new crimson works, inspired by the story of a rose toll at nearby Balvenie Castle. ‘I think it’s going to have quite a seedy feel,’ Watt says. The red slits and folds and petals will hang in the adjacent room to Flinzer’s ‘He Caught Us’ series of women playing up in bras.
The works, now fully installed, include photography by Canadian Myfanwy MacLeod, film by Argentinian, Claudio Caldini and installation by Chen Hui-chiao and American Warren Neidich. (Ruth Hedges)
THINGS UNHAPPEN Glasgow School of Art, until Fri 2 Sep 0..
Things Ul.’/l(i,’)/)(3l7 rests on a clever curatorra. concept. Graduates "'o'ri the
’of Arts Visi.a' (Ionintanication r:<:t."s-:: .' somethmg that court not oe solo strictures ef commercia: design.
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drawrngs. [)rasxirtg on her day rm) as a ptippeteer. sr‘e :;"::.'.s litl'fiwi: s of possible puppets
a succinct 'eue'sa. o" the ::~,er‘t ‘l: eas"El
heat source ‘.'.’lll(2l‘- causes them to ‘ade to t>ia<:k. litere we a so prints to be taken air/at. vVlIICIl will end up being bank pieces of nape". lle'e. Biaek firms the art consumer from a (:onserxator in o a destroyer a .' Repeeca Douglas Home tackles the enseliaple tron‘ anot"ev ange. photographing folk ‘.'.'earing <:iot".es tna’. are near to t'ien‘. lnere's a r‘ ce home
.onuer‘ail, "eat <:or‘(:ert.
made monkey, suit. a stunning frock inherited from (,‘iranrln‘a a":: E;()ll‘i(? '1(l(}()tlf; tartan leggings. all accompanied by texts (EXl):£il." nu tne '.'.'-:,-are"s attac'in‘ent to their chosen garment.
()ll‘.’(l’l' Neiison, '.'./hose pest Klt()‘.'.'lt .‘.’()r'k' might be the <::;=;eiaul<:~ i‘a"d made record coxers of 'ii:; lllll)l'()‘.’lf$(}(l mus.<: group Scatter. "as; 'l‘éith? a box of found ephemera. A portrait sits inside. next to a cup o" tea. ,. £1(l(llll(_l to the ri‘iysterj. rather than sol‘. 'ltl if.
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Visual Art
PAINTING. SCULPTURE AND FILM STEFAN NIKOLAEV CCA, Glasgow, until Sat 3 Sep .0.
Artworks can be strongly idea-based wrthout being conceptually groundbreaking. but formal developments must outweigh faint subject matter for the work to reach greatness. Paris-based Bulgarian artist Stefan Nikolaev's Come to Where the Flavour Is at the CCA attempts to negotiate this minefield. The exhibition is well curated — balanced and well placed. but some of the works shown fall short.
Work such as the large marble Cigarette packets ‘Return to GIOry‘. (black marble and gold paint) and 'Come to Where the Flav0ur ls'. (white marble and gold paint) too clearly demonstrate the binarised thought at play — smoke/don't smoke. dark/light. die/live, cool uncool. etc. Only when a visual pun leaps out of the familiar do we think and look at it for a little longer, as in the neon sign ‘Balkanton'. 2004. where the '0‘ appears to have fallen to the floor and peers at yOU like a doll eye.
His earlier work may lack a solid narrative. but it does have a greater aesthetic presence: 'Pink and Black Star'. 2002. (neon. leather and metal), for example. appears to be made from the trashy debris of a gay Euro disco. The ‘Marlboro Boxes. 2004. make you mourn for Warhol when you should be praising Nikolaev. These works appear to be about the theoretical phantoms that have plagued art for the last 40 years
the problem of scale. appropriation and the inver8ion of popular motifs — but Nikolaev has confused this observation with what he believes to be something new.
(Alexander Kennedy)
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Dofi’t forget to remember me
l l 18 Aug) 200:") THE LIST 37