Visual Art
‘WHAT’S IMPORTANT IS WHAT YOU LEAVE OUT’
www.list.co.uk/visualart Hitlist THE BEST EXHIBITIONS *
Man and the machine Glasgow-based artist Duncan Campbell talks to Neil Cooper about his penchant for putting former headline-makers back into the limelight
Meet John DeLorean. It’s a name that swaggers with the charismatic clichéd machismo of a pulp fiction hero: self-made, aspirational, all sports cars and girls, with an Icarus-like downfall plotted in. DeLorean was all too real, however, as was the science-fiction speed machine that for a brief moment in 1981 threatened to turn the motor car manufacturing industry upside down. Looking every inch the silver fox who turned the American Dream into his own private road trip, DeLorean’s image is the iconic inspiration behind Make It New John, a new film which forms the basis for Duncan Campbell’s first major solo exhibition in Scotland.
‘The starting point for me was the car,’ says Campbell. ‘I knew the car from Back to the Future and I knew a bit about the scandal, but once I started looking into it, it became clear that there was this huge gap between the perception and the reality of the car, which is already an object that men fetishise.’ Campbell has pieced together archive documentary footage of DeLorean, who, following a brilliant career with General Motors, opened up a factory in Northern Ireland to manufacture the racy-looking but technically flawed DMC12 sports car. ‘I found the paradox fascinating, especially because you can’t separate the car from DeLorean himself, and the associations he imbued the car with. DeLorean had this rags to riches life, and then went out on his own, with the then Labour government dazzled by him enough to give him all this money.’ This isn’t the first time Campbell has put missing- presumed-dead former headline-makers back into the
spotlight. His 2008 film, Bernadette, pieced together footage of Bernadette Devlin, the Irish Republican MP, elected in 1969, aged 21, just before the Troubles exploded. For a brief period Devlin became tabloid fodder, demonised as ‘Fidel Castro in a mini-skirt.’ However, unlike DeLorean, who died in 2005, Devlin is still alive.
‘She had this really incendiary period,’ Campbell observes, ‘where there was this parallel Bernadette Devlin created by the media. She spent a lot of time trying to counteract that, but after that period, when the Troubles became violent, it was almost as if she’d died. It’s difficult for an icon to retain a heroic image if they’re still living. It’s the same with DeLorean, who was a very big story in his day, but if you look at the news programmes, there was lots of other stuff going on as well. It’s interesting how some things endure while other things just disappear.’ Make It New John is made up of four fragmentary and often contrary sections. Campbell deliberately opted to end his possibly unreliable versions of events prior to the drugs sting that DeLorean was later acquitted of as his company faced financial ruin.
‘I’m not trying to be deliberately obscure,’ Campbell insists, ‘but you have to tailor what you do so you’re not dictated to by a framework. What I’m doing is more about montaging a story that was almost Shakespearian, where what’s important is what you leave out.’
Duncan Campbell: Make It New John, Tramway, Glasgow, Fri 22 Jan–Sun 14 Mar.
✽✽ Votive Compelling group show exploring the concept of the object as event, featuring a contribution from this year’s Turner Prize winner, Richard Wright. CCA, Glasgow, until Sat 30 Jan. ✽✽ Luke Fowler: A Grammar for Listening (Parts 1-3) Last chance to catch this showcase from the award- winning artist, whose field recordings look at the relationship between looking and listening. The Modern Institute, Glasgow, until Sat 30 Jan. ✽✽ Colin Gray: In Sickness and in Health The photographer concludes his series The Parents with this moving collection. Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow, until Sat 23 Jan. ✽✽ Love Exhibition looking at the shared politics and techniques of artistic partnerships. See review, page 90. Sorcha Dallas, Glasgow, until Fri 19 Feb. ✽✽ Taking Time: Craft and the Slow Revolution This touring group exhibition uses work by a vast array of craftspeople and makers to explore up-to-the-minute issues. See picture caption, page 91. Dovecot, Edinburgh, until Wed 10 Mar. ✽✽ Duncan Campbell: Make It New John Glasgow-based filmmaker Campbell creates another film documentary using the late automobile innovator John DeLorean as muse. See preview, left. Tramway, Glasgow, Fri 22 Jan–Sun 14 Mar. ✽✽ Toby Paterson A solo show of new and existing work by the acclaimed Glasgow School of Art graduate, which explores his enduring fascination with architectural spaces. Reviewed next issue. Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, Sat 30 Jan–Sun 28 Mar. 21 Jan–4 Feb 2010 THE LIST 89