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INSTALLAIION KEIKO MUKAIDE - SPIRIT OF PLACE
Visualising energy
The experience is surreal. Keiko Mukaide is talking to me about her forthcoming show with dowsing rods in hand. We are in the middle of the Talbot Rice Gallery’s main exhibition space and the rods are responding to Mukaide's simple questions. Dowsing may well conjure up all things New Age, but it is a simple way of sourcing the energy beneath the earth’s surface - from underground streams to Iey and other energy lines.
And it is this energy source that Mukaide is attempting to visualise in her installation. Not an easy task for someone who works in glass. She has created a woven spiral form of metal with suspended fragments of reflective glass. The three-dimensional structure will hang from the 8m Gallery atrium, flooding the space with light, colour and energy.
“The spiral is a very important symbol in our life,’ she says. ‘When you drop milk into your coffee, it spirals, smoke from a candle spirals, water going down a drain spirals, plants grow in spiral shapes.‘
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Accompanying the glass structure is a sound work referring to the compas points, and a wall of glass like a waterfall in mid-flow. Upstairs in the round room, the circular walls will be adorned with hundreds of iridescent pieces of glass: a truly sensory experience.
Mukaide concentrates on recreating aspects of nature through a palette of glass materials. For Elemental Traces in 2000, she sited glass and sound works within the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh. These works were not only beautifully realised but captured the atmosphere of the place. Spirit of Place brings the strands of previous works together - Visualising the energy and spirit of a place.
Her recent move to the countryside has further enhanced her sensibility to nature. Afar cry from her days as a graphic designer in a busy Tokyo studio. “When I was in my office in Tokyo i didn’t have the chance to experience nature,’ she says. ‘Living in Scotland has given me the opportunity to see more of nature. I still have a busy life style but once I am home, in the garden, there’s a wonderful feeling of peace.’ (Helen Monaghan)
I Talbot Rice GaNery. 650 22 70. 9 Aug— 73 Sep, free.
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FESTIVAL ART
Best exhibitions this week
I Julian Schnabel Love him or loathe him, new work by the American artist and filmmaker, Julian Schnabel. in his first show in Scotland since the 803. The show features customised surf boards. paintings, sculpture and large-scale Polaroid snaps of his family. See feature. Inver/eith House. Royal Botanic Garden, 552 7171, 9 Aug—26 Oct, free.
I Keiko Mukaide: Spirit of Place Flooding the gallery with light. colour and energy, Keiko Mukaide presents her commissioned installation — a spiral form made up of metal and reflected glass — together with other sound and glass works. See preview. Talbot Rice Gallery, 650 2210, 9 Aug—13 Sep, free.
I Boyle Family Spanning their entire career. the first retrospective devoted to the Boyle Family, best known for their hyper-realistic reproductions of squares of the earth's surface. National Gallery of Modern Art, 624 6200, 14 Aug—9 Nov, £4 (£3); under 7 28 free.
I Monet: The Seine and the Sea - vetheuii and Normandy 1878-1883 The eagerly anticipated unveiling of around 90 paintings by French impressionist, Claude Monet. created during 1878-1883 and housed in the newly restored and refurbished RSA building. A must see. Royal Scottish Academy Building, 624 6200. until 26 Oct, £8. 50 (£5.50); family ticket £20; under 123 free.
I After Image Four seminal female photographers are brought together in this show that feature the hugely influential Cindy Sherman. the defining images of deceased artists Ana Mendieta and Francesca Woodman and Simryn Gill's Da/am and Vegetation series. Fruitmarket Gallery, 225 2383, until 27 Sep, free.