list.co.uk/festival Reviews | FESTIVAL VISUAL ART
I
L A V T S E F T R A H G R U B N D E © O T O H P
I
DEREK MICHAEL BESANT: IN OTHER WORDS . . . Canadian artist’s portraiture experiment ●●●●● THE STRIP New digital installation developed at Edinburgh’s tech incubator ●●●●●
A creator of large-scale installations and billboard works at home in his native Canada, Derek Michael Besant presents a show which might, by his standards, be considered small-scale. However, created with the users of Edinburgh Printmakers as his models, it’s an experiment which is completely in control of its own aesthetic and intention. This is an experiment in portraiture which goes out of its way to ‘unsee’ the individual, to represent them not through their features but through other personal identifying characteristics, both outward and inward. Besant has photographed each of his participants – all 25 of them – in a manner which means their faces are blurred and obscured from our view. The characters are unrecognisable, but there’s enough significant outline in their silhouette and on their face that they may yet be familiar to those who know them. Over these images, he has overlaid a continuing text comprised of their words, a ‘found poem’ which reveals snippets of each sitter by showing something other than their face. It’s an interesting project, although the repetition of form does become slightly wearing over a whole show. (David Pollock) ■ Edinburgh Printmakers, 557 2479, until 5 Sep (not Mon & Sat), free.
Glasgow-based collaborators The Dennis and Debbie Club were artists-in-residence at Codebase, the tech incubator in Argyle House, in the six months leading up to the Edinburgh Art Festival. During this time they developed The Strip – a digital triptych made using open source 3D graphic software and CGI animation.
This technology maintains the lo-fi digital aesthetic familiar in previous works. Each of three screens constructs a different location; the greenhouse in which Kurt Cobain shot himself in 1994; a crater on the planet Mars from data captured by ESA’s Mars Express Mission in 2014; and a collage of buildings found along Los Angeles’ Sunset Strip. These scenes eventually break apart, leaving disparate objects floating across a blue background.
But The Strip is displayed in such an honest way
(everything is on display, from the speakers and cables to the mouse to turn the clips off and on) that there is no illusion within the work. The scenes constructed and then fragmented are obviously artificial, which is disappointing for an audience expecting to be entertained by the promised immersive possibilities of CGI technology. (Rachael Cloughton) ■ CodeBase, Argyle House, 560 2003, 22 & 23, 29 & 30 Aug, free.
JULIE FAVREAU: SHE CENTURY Crammed single-room show loses focus ●●●●●
One of the Edinburgh Art Festival’s 2015 commissions created under the ‘Improbable Cities’ banner, this single-room show manages to cram a lot in, although that’s perhaps its weakest point. There are seven distinct items here, and they appear to bear no relation to one another. While it’s interesting to see various elements of Canadian artist Julie Favreau’s work, the effect is to create a sense of uncomfortable overlap when viewing, making it harder to focus on one item. The title piece is perhaps the most penetrable.
Over a five-minute film installation, we see a woman – Favreau herself? – in a garden, miming finding the edges of a solid structure around her, even as obelisk-like black shields appear to fence her in. In another scene, the shape of what appears to be a razor blade has been laid out on the grass in cable. She picks it up, whipping the ground as she goes. The other film piece, ‘Hunting at Night’, shows her scratching at the floor of a country path, taking on the role of hunter even as the projection onto acrylic creates an eerily twilight effect. There’s a distinct feminist undertone to these pieces, although it’s less apparent in angular sculptural works and black fabric floor-to-ceiling hanging pieces. (David Pollock) ■ Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art Two, 624 6200, until 30 Aug, free.
SCOTTISH ARTISTS 1750–1900: FROM CALEDONIA TO THE CONTINENT Exhibition celebrates the Scottish art and artists within the Royal Collection ●●●●●
With so much contemporary art in town, a show of historical painting feels like something of an anomaly, but there are some real – and rarely exhibited – gems in this, the first show from the Royal Collection specifically dedicated to Scottish painting. There are several stories being told here. One is about
the monarchy commissioning Scottish artists: Allan Ramsay became the first to have a royal appointment, at the court of George III, and there is a fine selection of his portraits here; David Wilkie was commissioned to paint, with some pomp and circumstance, George IV’s visit to Scotland in 1822.
There is a story about Scottish painters not only
becoming recognised outside their own country, but actively seeking wider horizons: there are important works here from Wilkie’s time in Spain during the War of Independence, and by John Phillip, whose Spanish gypsy paintings were beloved by Queen Victoria.
And then there is the corresponding story of the Victorian love affair with Scotland: landscapes painted as souvenirs to show places Victoria and Albert visited; a delightful miniature of Prince Albert in Highland dress, painted by Robert Thorburn for the Queen’s birthday; portraits of her favourite tartan-clad entertainers. In 150 years, the country had transformed from a cultural backwater to one which would be celebrated and mythologised in the fashionable art of the day. (Susan Mansfield) ■ Queen’s Gallery, 556 5100, until 7 Feb , £6.60 (£6).
20–31 Aug 2015 THE LIST FESTIVAL 93
I
L A V T S E F T R A H G R U B N D E © O T O H P
I