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PREVIEW INSTALLATION / SOUND IMAN ISSA: PARABLES Glasgow Sculpture Studios, Sat 18 Apr–Sat 13 Jun
Having known Iman Issa since 2008 after a meeting in Egypt, Kyla McDonald was keen to show her work as soon as she took over at Glasgow Sculpture Studios. ‘But I wasn’t quite sure how best to do this,’ says the GSS director. ‘Iman works in a very methodical way, with many works taking a long time to complete due to her process of careful refinement. After many discussions we chose to present two existing works, “Common Elements” and “The Revolutionary”. The former is her largest installation to date and the latter is a sound work that explores similar themes.’ ‘The Revolutionary’ builds an intentionally clichéd picture of a radical political figure, while ‘Common Elements’ is a maze-like installation of half- remembered and copied works from museums Issa has visited as well as texts from biographies she’s read.
‘Issa’s work explores many things,’ says McDonald. ‘I’d say she’s interested in how meaning,
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both the political and personal, is carried and disseminated through language, objects and forms. She investigates what’s familiar to us, and she’s interested in the intersection between individual experience and a collective one. It’s also important to say her work is rooted in the history and ever- evolving present of the Arab world, with particular reference to Egypt.’ (David Pollock)
PREVIEW SCULPTURE CHRISTINE BORLAND AND BRODY CONDON: CIRCLES OF FOCUS CCA, Glasgow, Fri 3 Apr–Sun 17 May
Donating body parts after death has long been a staple of the scientific world. Yet, despite occasional conceptual appropriations of blood and guts, art hasn’t attracted a similarly civic-minded set of card- carrying citizens. Christine Borland and Brody Condon’s Circles of Focus project may go some way to changing that.
At the CCA, the pair will show off the fruits of their long-term research in the shape of pit-fired
ceramic sculptures, performance documentation and legal paperwork which will also function as a proposal to potential body donors with whom the artists have worked over the past two years. ‘The work with clay began after spending time with a local experimental archaeologist in Orkney focused on the reconstruction of Neolithic pots, and later with similar jar coffin experts in Korea,’ explains Condon, whose previous collaboration with Borland, Daughters of Decayed Tradesmen, was seen at the 2013 Edinburgh Art Festival. ‘We were intrigued that similar clay shapes and forms had evolved across the globe. The contemporary recreation process of these vessels, based on excavated fragments, combined with current digital construction methods, has determined the development of our sculptures.’
Borland and Condon will also host an open firing at Cove Park on Saturday 21 March, while during
the exhibition itself, informal ‘rehearsals’ will document the abstract traces transferred from the sculptures to the skin of carefully positioned surrogate living bodies. This will see Borland and Condon make an aesthetic proposal for the physical remains of the donors.
‘We immediately noticed, and were intrigued by, the unexpected indentations on the surface of the donor bodies,’ says Borland. ‘These geometric shapes were in sharp contrast to the most organic of materials, the human body. The shapes had been created by the hypostatic process that occurs when blood stops flowing and moves to the lowest gravitational point, leaving an indelible impression of whatever surface the body was resting on at the time.’ (Neil Cooper)
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Previews | VISUAL ART
PRIVATE VIEW HIDDEN DOOR
Hidden Door is an annual festival of the grassroots arts scene in Edinburgh. This year it will take place in the Old Street Lighting Depot on King’s Stables Road near the Grassmarket. Organiser David Martin tells us more . . . What’s Hidden Door all about?
Hidden Door exists to try and create an alternative opportunity for breakthrough artists, to develop their practice, build on innovative ideas and create an opportunity for artists to meet and collaborate. It also exists to cheer up the public a wee bit. I think Edinburgh is renowned for being an arts city, it celebrates the rest of the world, but it doesn’t necessar- ily celebrate itself. Hidden Door is celebrating creativity here and building connections with cities around Scotland. What can we expect from Hidden Door this year?
This year is going to be spectacular because we have the best possible venue. There is a magical hidden courtyard . . . [and] a myriad of buildings to explore and find fantastic art in. We will have four different performance venues within it, three of them are theatres and one is a live music room. We are also collaborating with Bongo Club – they are running Bongo Lives at the same time and so we are going to create a double-pronged attack on the Grass- market and make it a really exciting place to be for that week. The theatre programme is also much more extensive than last year; this time we’ve got 20 different productions.
What highlights should we be looking forward to? There’s going to be a brilliant endurance thea- tre performance by theatre company Creative Electric, called Treat, which involves a large floor space and lots of ice-cream, lasting over four hours. We’ve also got so fantastic a visual arts programme, with a few people returning from last time, it’s too hard to pick just one! (Kirsty Neale) ■ Hidden Door Festival, Old Street Lighting Depot, Edinburgh, Fri 22–Sat 30 May.
2 Apr–4 Jun 2015 THE LIST 117