VISUAL ART | Previews & Reviews
S K R O W O T O H P L E V E L
T E E R T S Y S E T R U O C
:
O T O H P
PHOTOGRAPHY YOHANNE LAMOULERE & FRANCK POURCEL False Towns / At Twilight, Trongate 103, Glasgow, until Sun 25 Sep; Institut français d’Écosse, Edinburgh, Fri 7 Oct–Sat 26 Nov. Roma / Noailles, Alliance Française de Glasgow, Fri 2 Sep–Sat 29 Oct
When Street Level Photoworks director Malcolm Dickson realised that Marseille and Glasgow had been twin cities for a decade, he decreed to do something to commemorate the relationship between these two urban landscapes which have changed dramatically, but which have left areas untouched and largely hidden from view. The result is two off-site shows by Yohanne Lamoulere and
Franck Pourcel, two photographers who look at the underbelly of Marseilles in very different ways. In False Towns, Lamoulere looks at reshaping the northern-most zone of Marseille, while Roma: Marseille ajar city focuses on a makeshift Roma community built in the area. Twinned with False Towns, Pourcel’s At Twilight captures a city
caught between demolition and renewal, while Noailles at the time of rehabilitation, which is paired with Roma . . . looks at an area in the throes of redevelopment, even as it houses migrants and temporary workers.
In an ongoing exchange, work by Glasgow-based artists
Frank McElhinney and Kotryna Ula Kiliulyte are set to be seen in Marseille, with further projects pending. ‘There are a lot of synergies between Marseille and Glasgow,’
Dickson points out, ‘both in terms of their historical relationship to photography, energy of the city space, diversity of inhabitants, and an individual identity. ‘Both, of course, have strong industrial traditions and both, to some extent, are built historically around their waters – with the sea in Marseille’s case, and the river in Glasgow, both allowing for trade and cultural exchange between emergent peoples in the two cities.’ (Neil Cooper)
P H O T O
: O N D R E J P E L Á N E K
,
P H O T O :
M A X S L A V E N
PHOTOGRAPHY WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR 2016 National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, Fri 16 Sep–Sun 8 Jan 2017 COLLABORATIVE EXHIBITION MAKING THE BED, LAYING THE TABLE Glasgow Sculpture Studios, until Sat 3 Sep ●●●●●
Dr Nick Fraser, keeper of natural sciences at the National Museum of Scotland, is pleased to see the Natural History Museum’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition return to the museum. ‘Particularly as it’s this year’s only Scottish venue,’ he says. ‘The exhibition was launched in 1965 and attracted 361 entries; today it receives almost 50,000 entries from 95 different countries. The exhibition itself features 100 photographs capturing a diverse collection of scenes, from rarely observed animal behaviour to stunning wild landscapes.’
He points to a couple of images as strong examples of what can be seen. One is the winner in the 15–17 years category, an image of scarlet ibis in flight over Brazil’s Ilha dos Lençóis by French photographer Jonathan Jagot, showing the birds over sand and out of their usual wetlands habitat (pictured above); the other, ‘A tale of two foxes’ by Canadian doctor Don Gutowski, winner of the mammals category, shows a red fox in a deathly embrace with the arctic fox it appears to have just killed. It’s a fearsome image, more so when the viewer comes to understand that only global warming has allowed the two creatures’ habitats to collide in recent years. (David Pollock)
88 THE LIST 1 Sep–3 Nov 2016
Collaboration is both the subject matter and means for producing Making the Bed, Laying the Table, in which Katie Schwab enlists the help of friends and family to realise a diverse exhibition that deals with the politics of domestic space.
Don’t skip the quiet video work and accompanying publication: by encouraging us to piece together associations from different modes of expression they help us to understand the exhibition as a whole. The video, made with Schwab’s father Ed Emery, draws our attention to the imperfection of seemingly orderly domestic spaces. The specially commissioned piece of writing by Rosanna McLaughlin also brings messy and blurry details to the fore.
Taking centre stage is the body of work by Florence
Dwyer and Simon Worthington made collectively with Schwab that marries art and design to produce new work for ‘a future communal home’. It adds an interesting dimension to objects that teeter between being art objects and just objects. It isn’t always clear which artist is behind what;
such is the thoroughness of the group’s collaborative process. That it barely matters is testament to its success. (Laura Campbell)
VIDEO INSTALLATION SHARON HAYES: IN MY LITTLE CORNER OF THE WORLD, ANYONE WOULD LOVE YOU The Common Guild, Glasgow, Sat 8 Oct–Sun 4 Dec
American multimedia artist Sharon Hayes works with photography, film, video and sound. She examines personal and political material in her practice, and in her own words, ‘appropriates, rearranges, and remixes in order to revitalise spirits of dissent’. Hayes is drawn to the power of language,
particularly that of 20th-century protest groups, in relation to which she explores tensions between collective and personal actions. In conjunction with Studio Voltaire in London, the Common Guild in Glasgow has commissioned this new video-based artwork, which was first shown at Studio Voltaire in April. It comprises a five-channel video installation projected onto a plywood structure, a reference to the notice boards used by action and support groups. The work features archival material from feminist, lesbian and effeminist political groups from the US and the UK from 1955–1977, read aloud by members of the queer and feminist community in Philadelphia. For the Common Guild this video work has been adapted to include new lesbian and feminist material from Glasgow Women’s Library, drawing attention to this vital Scottish archive. (Rosie Lesso)