‘WE'RE LOOKING FOR IDEAS AND PEOPLE WITH INITIATIVE TO BRING THEM TO US'
r- Ht“
i’,
Alexan
eyond Beck’ “fires
r Kennedy meets up with FRANCIS MCKEE before the
Giddy by
Blood ‘N’ Feathers
opening of Beck’s Futures 2006, to talk about the CCA’s new direction.
hat do you call the viewing before an
opening? ()rganised. invigorating chaos. it
seems. Beck‘s Futures 2006 is still lying about the floors of the awesome space at 73 Trongate (the (‘(‘A‘s offsite project). in storage boxes and bubble wrap as your reviewer tries to look busy by staring blankly at the same three oil paintings by Blood‘N'Feathcrs dtto Jo Robertson and Lucy Stein. before meeting Francis McKee for an informal chat about art. the future and everything.
We decide that the scene unfolding before Us is a fitting symbol. a metaphor for the recent changes that have taken place at the C C A after Graeme McKenzie's hasty retreat at the end of 2005. McKee (who teaches at Glasgow School of Art and is the curator of Glasgow International) has had ‘only the one slight wobble‘ since taking over as interim director. but you wouldn't think it to look at him. His enthusiasm and steady energy are contagious. Acting in the role of instigator. trouble-shooter and lifesaver. McKee and his strengthening team have managed to pull the CCA
back from the precipice it was blindly hurtling itself
towards.
With a depleted staff. a tiny budget and a limiting exhibition space. it was almost guaranteed that the CCA would close (taxi drivers will tell you it has) but. as McKee says: ‘People confused the building with the organisation itself. The CCA is not just a space on Sauchiehall Street. as this offsite project demonstrates. The building was quickly becoming a mausoleum. and most of the staff left due to low morale. But a hardcore
group stayed and are determined to make this work.
'The Arts Council were great: they told us that we can
do what we want with the building. We've already been thinking about converting the first floor offices into a new gallery space. which would double the exhibition space available. and maybe moving the cafe. restaurant and bar about. create a new media area. give the pubic
access to the internet. Get people in. We're hoping to i
get more life into the place. and have already started
talking to lntermedia about the possibility of them
moving into one of the spaces. We‘re looking for ideas and people with initiative to bring them to us. It’s not a closed shop.‘
To return to the three paintings and to Beck‘s Futures
— they are already beginning to look good. Stein and
Robertson sit on the floor next to their work. occasionally looking over and smiling. The rest of the nominees (Sue Tompkins. Olivia Plender. Simon
Popper. Bedwyr Williams. Daniel Sinsel. Seb Patane.
Jamie Shovlin. Richard Hughes. Matt Stokes. Stefan
Brtiggemann and Flavia Miiller Medeiros) are making
their way up from London‘s ICA. where a sister exhibition has already opened. with another opening in Bristol's A-Bond building. It's difficult to see what all
the fuss was about. The CCA is open. alive and vital —
like McKee himself.
Beck’s Futures 2006, CCA Offsite, 73 Trongate, Glasgow until Sat 13 May. Ross Sinclair - Real Life Painting Show, CCA, Glasgow, until Sat 3 June.
Fred Sandback An excellently curated and installed exhibition by the late American artist. Sandback's work draws on Minimalist. conceptual and installation art practices to create slight sculptures that reverberate with something much larger than the sum of their flimsy. humble parts. The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 74 May.
Ellswoth Kelly One of the great American Minimalist painters. who collapses the distinction between figure and ground into painted paeans to a kind of transcendental formalism more in line with Malevich than Stella. Kelly's new lithographs suggest windows onto the unknown or. at the very least. glimpses into our need to project human qualities at abstract forms that seek to thwart easy anthropomorphic readings. Ing/eby Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sat 22 Apr. See review page 94.
Becks Futures The sixth outing of the Becks sponsored prize that hopes to select and present the best young contemporary artists in Britain. The exhibition is part of the CCA's move into offsite projects and is part of Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Visual Art 2006. CCA Offsite, 73 Trongate, Glasgow, until Sat 13 May. See review, opposite.
Alen Ruppersberg ‘One of Many — Origins and Variants' is the first large exhibition of the American artist to take place in this country. Ruppersberg's work is based on the habit of collecting, and references Beat culture and the methods and debris of mass communication. His famous Singing Poster will be on display ‘ alongside other new works. Dundee Contemporary Art, Dundee, until Sun 28 May. See preview, page 95.
13-27 Apr 2006 THE LIST 93