Festival VISUAL ART
For more info go to LIST.CO.UK /FESTIVAL
HITLIST THE BEST EXHIBITIONS
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GENERATION exhibition is showing for free during the Festival is a great advertisement for the Scottish art scene - not because it’s a triumph of parochial tokenism, but because the quality of the work confirms that everything you have heard about Scotland’s contemporary art scene is true. Works of resonance and conceptual vitality abound. The first a visitor sees is a new commission by Karla Black entitled ‘A Story of a Sensible Length’, a delicate hanging arrangement of white and pastel pink fabrics which on closer inspection reveal themselves to be sheets of polythene. Elsewhere, the stylistically crude, pseudo-religious paintings (pictured) of the late Steven Campbell occupy a whole room, floor to ceiling.
GENERATION Outstanding group show celebrating contemporary art in Scotland T hat this segment of the nationwide
David Shrigley’s monochrome cartoon paintings and concrete-cast boots are playfully subversive as ever and Martin Boyce’s striking ‘Our Love is Like the Rain, the Sea and the Hours’ recasts the dullest of furniture – the striplight bulb – as a series of crystalline, almost organic hanging decorations. Yet Christine Borland’s magnificent ‘L’Homme Double’ lingers longest, a collection of six artist’s imagined casts of Josef Mengele created using only dissimilar images and contradictory reports supplied by the artist, which tell us something about history and the larger perversions of it by memory. (David Pollock) Scottish National Gallery, 624 6200 until 2 Nov, free. ●●●●●
✽ GENERATION: 25 Years of Contemporary Art in Scotland See
review, left. Scottish National Gallery, 624 6200, until 2 Nov, free.
✽ Where do I end and you begin Group show with works selected by five curators from Commonwealth countries. The exhibition presents a myriad of perspectives, exploring the ideals, myths and legacies of the Commonwealth. See feature, page 94. City Art Centre, 529 3993, until 19 Oct, free.
✽ Amar Kanwar and Shilpa Gupta Amar Kanwar’s evolving artwork ‘The
Sovereign Forest’, which explores the impact of mining on the landscape and communities of Odisha, India, is installed in the atmospheric Old Royal High School. Outside, visitors will find a light work by Shilpa Gupta. See feature, page 94. Old Royal High School, until 31 Aug, free.
✽ Paul Carter: Icaro Menippus [x2] Intimate and sometimes dark exhibition
of lo-fi, hi-tech constructions by the late Paul Carter. See review, page 96. Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, 551 4490, until 30 Aug, free.
✽ Kennardphillips: DemoTalk Peter Kennard and Cat Phillips are unafraid to make a strong political statement. Their work at Summerhall is an angry response to corrupt power and war. See review, page 96. Summerhall, 560 1590, until 26 Sep, free.
✽ Garage An eclectic group show featuring over 20 artists is exhibited in
unusual domestic spaces on Northumberland Street in the New Town. See preview, page 98. Garage, 07917 668 044, 9 & 10, 16 & 17, 23 & 24, 30 & 31 Aug, free.
7–14 Aug 2014 THE LIST FESTIVAL 93