The Carlin Moth Ill
PAINTING. HLM. INSTALLATION
AND SCULPTURE
GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART MFA - GROUP SHOW
Tramway. Glasgow. until Sun 25 Jun 0...
Glasgow School of Arts MFA is always an exhilarating prospect. Even when the work duality of the work shown fluctuates dramatically. there are so many different aesthetic DTODOSILIOHS Jutting up against each other that the viewer is dragged around the vast space at the Tramway by hungry expectation. The sixteen international artists exhibiting at this year's show have presented an enormously confident and solid collection of work. from modernist monstrositir-zs to paintings in light. gaudy 80s Italianate sculpture and the shoddy SDOIIS of pseudo— anthropology.
Rory Fergus Middleton's installation ("The Hawk and the Eagle) dominates the space physically and intellectually. A modernist 'eagle's nest' is perched a la Frank Lloyd Wright on a mountain of carpet. The Outside is definitely brought inside. and yisa versa: the International Styles corner stone is turned on its head and spun. yet the work resists glibness. Kristy Shindlei's Oli paintings on light boxes show enormous confidence and a deyeloped sense of painterly space. The work fluctuates between abstraction and figuration. dramng on Turner and Kandinsky.
Laura Jane Alderidge's installed wall seiilptuies on the ground floor present skeptical versions of the anthrOpologists urge to collect ‘other' cultures. while. upstairs. her fantastically naff monumental sc‘ulpture i'Triumph of the SCulpturai Genius'i balances geometric forms on sausage- shaped suppons. Tina Kotsi's films i'Bus and 'Jump'l are Simple and poetic. solidifying then deconstructing romantic modernist expression . Her work floats over the surface of the bell iar that art places over the world. (Alexander Kennedyl
Triumph of the Sculptural Genius by Laura Alderidge
Visual Art
MARGOT SANDEMAN The Talbot Rice Gallery. Edinburgh. until Sat 15 July
Although the 81 year old Scottish painter Margot Sandeman. born and trained in Glasgow. has exhibited throughout the UK and had a number of major solo shows. many believe she has not received the level of recognition she deserves.
But these delicate. underrated paintings are given respect and appreciation in this forthcoming exhibition. Pat Fisher. curator at the Talbot Rice has described the show as. ‘Iong overdue . . . an important reassessment of her work and continuing influence.‘
This retrospective exhibition will include paintings from throughout the artist‘s career. including more recent evocative. narrative portraits such as ‘Christina with Katy' (2004). depicting mother and child in peaceful union. and ‘Anna‘ (2003). a more sinister profile portrait of girl. linear. art nouveau auburn locks flowing across the painting.
Also exhibited will be landscapes and still lives. both of which she has explored throughout the decades. These will include the collaborations with her old Glasgow Art School buddy Ian Hamilton Finlay. who she influenced greatly. including a series of still life paintings from the seventies, which carry texts selected by the late Finlay. inspired by the significance of 11 words defining aspects of the vegetable world: ‘Olive. red currant berry. honey, pear and nut’ as well as man made materials: ‘Net. patch. sheaf jug and twine.’
Pat Fisher has summarised her work as “celebratory; sharing with the viewer . . . family. friends and nature'. While these are straightforward and easily sentimentalised subjects, there is an old fashioned Matisse-like quality to her linear style. bright colours and joyous commemoration of life. Frequently. there are surreal qualities in her paintings including giant moths, oversized matches. full moons and Freudian fruits. demonstrating her ability to add bite to ordinary subjects. That the Talbot Rice will be running children's creative writing workshops in response to Sandeman’s paintings says much about their evocative character. Their subtle and thought provoking qualities are well worth the belated appreciation. (Rosie Lesso)
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PHOTOGRAPHV SUSAN DERGES: WATER CYCLE Ingleby Gallery. Edinburgh. until Sat 22 Jul
While the photographic images of Susan Derges appear to hold sortie sort of base in recognisable reality. the Dartmoor-based artist's '.-.iorks also near a slightly unreal quality. As you ponder most of them. yOu're unsure whether you're seeing sky or water. or some oddly-positioned combinatiOn of both.
What you're actually looking at IS both. and yet. at the same time. neither. Derges' prinCipal technique is a cameraless One — her 'River Taw' and 'Shoreiine' series involved her Submerging sheets of photographic paper under river water and exposmg them to light. capturing the frozen movement of the water above. Subsequently. and presumably because of the effort involved in these al fresco CfQ’iLlC/HS. Derges' next maJOr proiects adapted similar techniques to the darkroom. She used tanks of water. onto the surfaces of whicri were prOj‘BCleO images of stars and the moon. and these series of experiments in ‘.lSuai trickery have been gomg on ever Since.
The exltlUil'Ofl :argely focuses on Derges' return to the ‘River Taw' a'io Shoreline series. whose style she reprised for a 2003 commssion from the Eden Proiect. also entitled ‘Water Cycle'. A selection of these photograms and dye destruction prints Will be on summarising the unique and meticulouSIy-Created results of Derges' experimentation. “I am reluctant to think of myself as a photographer. she has said. because so much of my work feels as if it has been to do with working With light in terms of dra'wing. The .‘.’Ork. and the ideas. always come from the act of making and 09.6300 out of that rather than the other way around.’ (DaVid Pollock)
22 Jun—6 Jul 2006 THE LIST 93