Visual Art ‘Hanging’
REVIEW SCULPTURE KARLA BLACK: SCULPTURES Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh, until Sun 14 Feb ●●●●●
While these new sculptures comprise Karla Black’s now familiar array of nebulous materials – chalk dust, eye shadow, sugar paper – they command a more distinct level of authority than has previously been seen. Her impermanent sculptures transcend figuration, reference, and are much more than the sum of their parts. This shift in Black’s practice is slight, but when viewed on this scale, the advance is notable, and while the collected works create a landscape of sorts, each resists the categorisation of ‘installation’.
If Black’s ongoing explorations of the collapse of
conventional sculpture have previously been marred by blurred political responses, these abstract sculptures, above all, prioritise material experience. Having said that, Sculptures has also got a lot to do with painting. And so Black’s brilliance unfolds – assertion is almost always coupled with ambivalence.
Laying firm foundations, ‘Left Right Left Right’ is a large mound of earth spread over the floor of the first room. It’s a thick, weighty slab-like mass veiled with pale plaster powder and spray paint, and tiny green
shoots can be seen sprouting from the dirt.
Reining in natural energies and combining them with her own, fearlessly personal formalism, Black’s work is not only concerned with weight and form, but surface. ‘Better’, a floor-based sculpture made from two types of Gaviscon, signals a continued pleasure in the processes of making – mixing, pouring and touching. Black indulges further with the sheer joys of materiality and aesthetics with the perfectly poised pale green sugar paper structure, ‘Demands Unfocus’ and the glacial plaster-powder sculpture, ‘Acceptance Changes Nothing’. Sculptures is accompanied by a room of abstract
landscapes by Scottish artist Bet Low (1924-2007) and a selection of quotes from writer Andrew Greig. With relation to the open Orkney landscape, Grieg suggests, ‘Gradually you move from the kind of conceptual realm we normally live in – this ghost in the head – into one’s physical being’. Otherwise text-less, Black’s inclusion of these extracts creates a beguiling and telling dialogue between her own formalism and that of the painter’s. Physical, pre-linguistic communication remains central to Black’s practice; a conceit made to feel all the more present with her incredible new sculptures. (Rosalie Doubal)
www.list.co.uk/visualart
REVIEW PAINTING CHARLIE HAMMOND: THE NEW IMPROVEMENT SCHEME Sorcha Dallas Gallery, Glasgow, until Fri 11 Dec ●●●●●
Glasgow-based painter Charlie Hammond’s canvases have been altered, added to, taken from, layered with impasto ceramic-laced paint and sheets of raw linen dressed in soft greys and pastel hues. At first glance they seem a bit dour:
like old school museum pieces they remind us of early 20th century cubist paintings – Braque’s neutral pallet landscapes, Fontana’s cuts through the canvas and even its forebear Cezanne’s geometric patchwork mountains. But this kind of self- awareness allows for the room to lighten up and humour to filter through. Although appearing to be
landscapes, they are titled portraits and this enables you to see a face emerging in ‘Portrait with Three Ring Roads (Awaiting Regeneration)’: two eyes and a mouth formed with the building blocks of a long windy road. A piece that stands out is ‘Mountainous Scene, with (at Great Expense!) a Small Bypass’. The canvas has been cut out and creates a pop-up of a road looping out of the canvas, but it also reveals the artist’s interest in political cartoons, and in things modern and traditional. An interesting and playful exhibition,
this is nonetheless a serious critique of urban design, transport policy and regeneration schemes, perhaps alluding to the absurdity (and expense!) of thinking we can improve on nature by boring tunnels through mountains. (Talitha Kotzé)
REVIEW GROUP SHOW THE END OF THE LINE: ATTITUDES IN DRAWING Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 10 Jan ●●●●●
The End of the Line may just be the beginning of a resurgence in interest to the humbled medium of drawing. The 11 international artists take ownership of the space with skill and innovation – especially in the case of Monika Gryzmala who has created a bespoke piece (unnamed at time of going to press) for the Edinburgh leg of this travelling exhibition. Care and attention to detail preclude any difficulties involved in melding the works of such diverse practitioners into a cohesive show. Some pieces straddle the realms of the epic (David Haines’ ‘Liquid Myth With
Nike Air’), or draw you into an animated sky (Naoyuki Tsuji’s ‘Trilogy About Clouds’). Fernando Bryce’s installation ‘Kolonial Post’ is a bedfellow of neat, mounted ink drawing with a historical bent, while the winged creatures in Garret Phelan’s ‘Battle for the Birds’ threaten to break free of the paper at any moment to start a revolt against humankind. In some pieces the line is hidden through detail, whereas in others it is purposefully displayed as part of the process. Graphite, charcoal, pencil and ink play happily with 3D tape and animation.
It is unlikely that any visitor to the gallery will leave disappointed, such is the
delight of this well conceived event, and with a program of talks and workshops to boot, The End of the Line may inspire future draughtsmen and women – if it hasn’t already. (Miriam Sturdee)
90 THE LIST 19 Nov–3 Dec 2009