Visual Art
FiLM [INSTALLATION JEREMY DELLER - EDITED RUSHES
The Modern Institute, Glasgow, until Sat 28 Oct 00
The centrepiece of Deller's latest works YOUSlIS the familiar tigure of Nick Fenton — tilni editOr of Deller’s 'LXOHOUS reenactment of the Violent ininem' strike, The Battle of Orgreave. For his reels ot "Edited Rushes 1998- 3001 With Extras". Deller diVides work Into ‘Night' and “Day. asking Fenton to wade through over 100 hOurs of footage he has shot over the three- year period. and construct the material In any way Fenton sees fit, The effect Is that of two rather haphazardly shot. often dull, but beautifully edited ‘.l(l(}() blogs. Kickboxing matches. aeroplanes. insects. Cat Power gigs — Deller's eye is not a selective one. but InciuSIve to the point of tediousness. Moments of respite are given With snippets of the personal: tilining a brass band's rehearsals for their Interpretations of acid house. Or Deller wandering Dandy-like In a sea of gallery openings.
This show appears to have caught the artist, never a fan of a short-term prOIeCtS. at tiller-stage — most likely working on some other collaboration that appears to be far more worthy of his time. and consequently our time. than this. (Isla Leaver-Yap)
artists make the trip worthwhile: Martin Mclnally, Stuart Mackenzie, Craig Peacock and Mark
PAINTING Campbell’s work shine. Peacock’s landscape is
GROUP7 - GROUP SHOW reminiscent of George Henry’s ‘Galloway Landscape’
The Pentagon. Glasgow until Fri NOV 3 0... (1889), with its flattened space and dark pockets of abstracted surface matter. Mclnally’s cityscapes
The Pentagon acts as an alternative to the tradition resemble Redonesque aureoles peppered with
gallery space, the supposed credibility of the old Whistler’s fireworks - they are both primordial and
water flat student set up, and the established artist- eerily Modern. Mackenzie’s seascapes and women
run spaces located around King Street. Group7 brings are the result of hard graft subsumed by simplicity,
together the work of seven painters, who have with calligraphic anti-lines where paint has been
previously exhibited in the Pentagon, with the show removed, and scarlet erogenous zones expanding like
acting as both a line drawn under the last few years of ink on wet paper.
the gallery’s existence, and a statement of intent You can half close your eyes but there is no denying
declaring the new direction that will be taken. that this is difficult foyer area branching out through
This small review of painting wraps neatly around the ground floor of an office complex, so ignore the
the labyrinthine space, with less successful paintings whirr of the photocopier and the industrial carpet;
secreted in niches and dead-ends (they should have most of the paintings inhabit another space.
been left in the studio). But the work of four of the (Alexander Kennedy)
.. at: 55:41:, DRAWING _’ " ‘ #ggnflAENDEL - MAKE ME DOWN A PALLET ON YOUR
Sorcha Dallas, Glasgow, until Sat 14 Oct 0.
There Is something so obvious la reactionary might say philistine) about treating everything With the same level of attention and/or contempt. The ‘high' and the ‘low' have been so expertly contlated In the best art and In the worst Visual studies theory that we are now well aware that both comic strips and paintings by Manet solICIt the same level of cencentration and reflection. Actually. this is a lie — comic strips Win every time. and the hyper-realist pop drawmgs of Kart Haendel indubitably demonstrate this. It's a struggle not to fall for it. but struggle we must.
This exhibition of Haendel‘s drawmgs (exhibited In a wry take on the salon's bargain basement selling solution. where all of the space available is occupied) adds very little to the trite debate that drags everything into the Signifying chain of Capitalism. Re-appropriated words and Images Vie for space with smart loose marks and abstract forms - all monotonously and perfectly rendered in graphite. The problems begin when you stop to examine or ‘Iike' one of these drawings: you have only found what you have put there. The work and the artist. it seems. remain Indifferent and inconseQUential.
What are we to think? The artist (as savant) demonstrates great skill but possibly not very much talent? Haendel copies many styles by utilizing the same meticulous approach: that of the observer who takes In everything and spits out pseudo-hip Junk. ls this the artist as cool Warholian machine? Should someone pull the plug? (Alexander Kennedy)
5-19 Oct 2006 THE LIST 89