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Visual Art
REVIEW SCULPTURE
RUTH CLAXTON: I ‘
POSTCARDS
lngleby Gallery, Edinburgh, until Wed 19 Nov 000
Rightly celebrated for her touring large-scale installation. Lands End.
Claxton's presentation of nine small 5
postcards at the lngleby Gallery sadly
disappoints compared to that
sprawling installation of delightfully
kitsch figures arranged atop dazzling
configurations of mirrored pedestals. In Postcards the artist has
manipulated reproductions of l
historical portraits with a scalpel, to create scars and decorative curls upon their surfaces. The sight lines of Janssen‘s figures in his 1614 “Peace and Plenty Binding the Arrows of War' have been sliced to candidly reveal two focal points which align to the 15th century painterly technique of the 1 ‘Golden Rectangle’. Similarly, with Frans Hals’ 1611 ‘Portrait of a Man Holding a Skull', Claxton has skinned two neatly connecting loops between the eyes of the man and his deathly object. placing an ambiguous emphasis on the portraits latent motif of immortality. These plucky pieces signify both an aggression towards and an aggrandisement towards the techniques of the original painters.
As an artist who draws in her practice primarily on notions of materiality and perception. there is much to be said for the sophisticated play with sculpture and sight exhibited here. In isolation, however, these pared down editions exhibit little reach l and produce minimal effect. Claxton's I tricky pictorial enigmas. at once photographic. painterly and sculptural are attractive, but ultimately belie the artist's talents. (Rosalie Doubal)
PREVIEW MIXED MEDIA INSTALLATION
ABRAHAM CRUZVILLEGAS: AUTOCONSTRUCCION
CCA, Glasgow, until Sat 8 Nov 0000
Abraham Cruzvillegas creates work that reflects his upbringing in Ajusco, a district of Mexico City developed by migrants from the countryside attracted to work in the city‘s building trade. who used their knowledge to collaboratively construct their homes and communities. Cruzvillegas' work reflects the social and political implications of such community action. This may sound a dry observation. but the exhibition contains a playful sense of humour.
The first gallery is packed with sculptures constructed during the artist 's residency at Cove Park in Scotland. The influence of the rural landscape is evident through found pieces of wood. hanks of wool and an imaginative use of sheep shit. Many of these works are beautifully and improbany balanced: several of the hanging pieces are ‘anchored’ by handfuls of wool.
The emptiness of the second gallery is explained by the presence of an extraordinary five-wheeled bicycle mounted with speakers and a video projector. Cruzvillegas filmed his progress around Glasgow on the bike. broadcasting the music to the city. and visitors are encouraged to ride around the space, blasting the songs and projecting the film onto the walls.
It is a testament to the strength of Cruzvillegas' artistic vision. and his talent, that his home-inspired practice enables him to maintain links with his origins while also incorporating new ideas that arise out of a foreign place. (Liz Shannon)
REVIEW SCULPTURE AND MIXED MEDIA
ALEX FROST: COMPASSION FATIGUE Sorcha Dallas, Glasgow, until Sat715 Nov 0000
The packaging from healthy breakfast cereals, eye drops, tooth polish and intensive moisturising lotion may not sound like promising subject matter for contemporary art, but Alex Frost’s excellent new exhibition consists of works based on just these everyday items. Accompanied by a publication that includes Frost’s beautiful ‘Blind Drawing’ self-portraits and works that further elucidate Compassion Fatigue’s sculptural themes, the exhibition features a body of work that is both visually and conceptually intriguing, despite its apparently banal subject matter.
‘Adult (Optivita - Berry Oat Crisp)’ is the first work to strike the viewer upon entering the gallery. A large, glistening, wall-mounted mosaic made from broken pieces of ceramic tile (as opposed to traditional tesserae), it depicts the front of a box of health-improving cereal, the popular modern antidote to too much good living. It is a striking and colourful piece that dominates the space and maintains an odd attraction, even once the viewer has identified the mundane origin of the mosaic’s outsized design. In the next-door gallery, an oversized,
bullet-shaped sculpture of simultaneously dynamic and misshapen appearance entitled ‘Adult (Optrex - Dry Eyes)’ has been similarly decorated with shiny pieces of tile. Like the previous piece, it is strangely beautiful, featuring gentle gradations of colour and clumsily thick stripes of tile at its base, designed to represent a barcode.
Alongside these outsized ‘Adult’ works is a series of smaller pieces depicting boxed products approximately to scale, which the artist has wrny entitled ‘Young Adults’. These works, made of polymer clay, accurately represent the packaging of the chosen product, down to the instructions and barcodes. However, each of these pieces is swollen and bulbous, as though they have been squashed and reshaped in transit.
Through the representation of these imperfect, branded, over-the-counter products, which are designed to alleviate our minor, cosmetic ailments or prevent future ill health, Frost identifies a bourgeois aspirational intent lurking behind the purchase of these items. Compassion Fatigue successfully challenges the viewer’s preconceived ideas relating to the reassuring nature of health and lifestyle ‘medicine’ and calls into question the cultural and class aspects of their consumption. (Liz Shannon)
3O Oct—13 Nov 2008 THE LIST 95
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