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RUNGIAH AND GAVINDOO: SOUTH INDIAN BOTANICAL DRAWINGS AND RUDOLF STINGEL: NEW WORK lnverleith House, Edinburgh, until Sun 9 July .0.
Greeting Visitors to the Stingel show is a small and evocative photo real self portrait painted in black and white. Despite his suit and the picture frame in the background, the artist is unshaven and seems worn down and aged. his eyes rolling heavenward in desperation. After a few takes on turning to the facing wall it finally hits that there is a doppelganger painting looking at the iiIESI. Throughout the downstairs space the identical paintings carry on: same man. same place. same expressron. Five of these small works are shown in total. a series of self portraits of the artist all entitled 'Self—Portrait (After Sairii'. spread sparsely throughout three rooms.
The gallery essay tells us ‘no two paintings can he truly identical. the repetition allegedly highlighting minute differences in paint application each time. yet these “differences are so minimal as to be virtually undetectable. While the first tun/o images are amusing, facing each other like an inverted reflection and making Viewers turn round in circles. by the time you reach the fifth. a nullified boredom has set in. This tedium prevents a deeper analysis into the apparent self assessment the work aims to address. The paintings resemble Warhol's minimal films. toying wrth the Viewer's boredom threshold. yet seem too familiar in concept to earlier. bolder artists to he completely absorbing.
Upstairs. by contrast. and inkeeping wrth the tradition of the building and surroundings. the 19th century taxonomist Richard Wight's layishly coloured collections of Botanical drawrngs by two Indian artists. Rungiah and Goyindoo are tightly packed together on the walls. While these works .yere created to he SCientific studies. the careful display here draws attention to their aesthetic skill and craftsmanship while painstakingly highlighting their scientific importance. (Rosie Lessol
onvmeo sewes - caoue SHOW Talbot Rice Gallery. University of Edinburgh, Sat 22 Apr 0000
Divided Selved is an intriguing name for this wide-ranging exhibition, though its subtitle - ‘the Scottish Self-Portrait from the 17th century to the present' - underlines more explicitly what is actually found in the gallery. The idea of ‘the divided self' refers most directly to the work of controversial Scottish psychiatrist R. D. Laing, but is sufficiently self- explanatory (an identity, composed of more parts than one) to set the visitor’s imagination running without recourse to the catalogue's (generally excellent) essays.
This show offers an impressive spectrum of Scottish art. from George Jamesone‘s 17th century self-portrait, in which he poses as his own salesman, directing our gaze towards his commercial works, to the diverse approaches of the present day. That said, the sheer quantity of ‘selves' on display, and their close hanging, make this an intense, tiring experience, like a polite and intelligent discussion in which no-one stops talking. The works that stand out most, then, tend to be those with the most unusual compositional approach: Elizabeth Blackadder's humorous and modest ‘Self Portrait with a Cat‘, in which her Abyssinian takes centre stage, or Angela Palmer's stunning, layered glass engraving of MRI. scans of her head. The painting that most seems to encapsulate the theme of the ‘divided self’, as well as providing a neat modernist staging post in the historical narrative, is Cecile Walton’s enigmatically titled Romance, in which she, lying nude, looks at her distracted newborn child.
Under the flexible definitions with which the curators have worked. the identity of the Scottish self-portrait is shown to be something of a ‘divided self’ in its own right, particularly in some of its more recent manifestations. Kenny Hunter’s Non Progress turns conventional notions of the portrait bust almost literally on their head - his plaster sculpture is displayed upside-down, scalped by its contact with the plinth. The exhibition concludes with Beagles and Ramsay's charming, meaty Black Puddings Self-Portrait, which includes photography and film, as well as an in situ star turn from the puddings themselves, in a fridge. (R. J. Thomson)
Willy by Sarah Lucas
SCULPTURE MATERIAL WORLD - GROUP SHOW Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, until Mon 25 Sep 0000
Materia/ Wor/d: Scu/pture‘ from the Arts Counci/ Collection is a loose. open— ended show. For this double anniversary exhibit ~ it marks the 60th year of the Collection. and GOMA's 10th — curator Sean McGlashan has avoided coriiuring up a curatorial concert. choosnig instead to gather f7 sculptural works for their ‘visual interest and powerful physical presence." This simple starting point serves the work well — with no training. no pushy agenda and no attempt to bend works around a framework. the VisitOr is left to get down to the business of looking.
The big names benefit the most from this approach. Damien Hirst and Rachael Whiteread labour under reputations that mask. to some extent. the reason for their reputations. But here. Hirst's ‘He Tried To Internalise E'Jer‘fihlflg'. an arrangement of an anesthetist's apparatus bisected by glass. stands Simply for what it is: a cool study of rriirroring and reflection. Similarly. Whitead's gelatinous ‘Untitled Six Spaces. casts of Spaces beneath chairs. remind us of the time she could draw a gasp rather than a yawn.
Unexpected assocrations arise. too. Claire Barclay's ‘Adonyne'. an unusable leather belt atop three thin pillows. forms an Liflllkel'y pair with Mark Wallinger's 'Heayen'. a metal fish inSide a birdcage. and both are Joined by Edward Lipski’s 'Tattoo'. a metiCLilcusly inked. Iimbless tOrso. Considered aIOne. little might link the three. but here the common thread of mordant humour. discomforting iuxtaposmon and traditional crafting seems clear. Material World is. then. a good thing: SCqutures in a room. waiting to be seen lJack Mottrami
11—25 May 2006 THE LIST 93