list.co.uk/festival Reviews | FESTIVAL VISUAL ART
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SHILPA GUPTA: FOR, IN YOUR TONGUE I CANNOT HIDE; 100 JAILED POETS Powerful stage for imprisoned voices ●●●●●
A country could be said to be in a bad way when it starts putting poets in jail. For this installation, Mumbai- based Shilpa Gupta brings together the words of 100 poets who have been imprisoned for their writing or beliefs, from the 8th century to the present day. In the darkened space, 100 rusted metal rods each spear a page on which a few lines of verse are written. The same lines spoken in a variety of languages form a sound installation for the100 voices: ‘Tomorrow, maybe they will kill us,’ whispers a voice in your ear, before being echoed and joined by other voices from around the room.
Immense care has been applied to orchestrating the voices, resulting in a work that is more than the sum of its parts. Despite these writers very different stories, there are common themes of love, home, freedom and equality to be found in their writing.
The individual microphones evoke the isolation of prison. Here they come together, from dark corners, in a powerful chorus of witness. These are voices which others tried but now failed to silence; here, they are given voice again to speak. (Susan Mansfield) ■ The Fire Station at Edinburgh College of Art, until 26 Aug, free.
ROSS BIRRELL & DAVID HARDING: TRIPTYCH Essential exploration of absence and loss ●●●●● JACOB'S LADDER Star-studded space-themed exhibition ●●●●●
Absence and loss are everything in this ongoing collaboration between Ross Birrell and David Harding. It’s there in the epic sweep of Henryk Gorecki’s Symphony No 3: Symphony of Sorrowful Songs (1976), a filmed performance of which forms the show’s heart. Shown across three screens, the film, ‘Lento’, features a collaboration between the Athens State Orchestra and the Syrian Expat Philharmonic Orchestra. With the orchestras filmed from the back of the central screen, Syrian soprano Rasha Rizk eventually comes into view to sing a haunting 15th- century lament on loss through war. The resonances of enforced migration are lent
even more intensity by the washes of blue and red that cover the windows of Trinity Apse. The different shades are derived from another piece rooted in the words of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, and lend the film and performance fire as they reflect the slow-burning sombreness of the music. The piece was originally conceived for documenta 14, along with a new piece, ‘Fugue’, developed in collaboration with Syrian composer and violinist Ali Moraly. Its over- riding sense of a world in endless exile makes for an essential experience. (Neil Cooper) ■ Trinity Apse, until 26 Aug, free.
Fifty years after Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, and just a year shy of half a century since man walked on the moon for real, space is still very much the place. With this in mind, Ingleby’s group show of 15 artists aims for the stars. This is perfectly evoked by ‘Colour Field’ (2016), Katie Paterson’s reimagining of the night sky with the dancing neon of Los Angeles after dark. One can orbit from Marine Hugonnier’s redacted
American and Russian newspaper front pages of the moon landings in ‘Art For Modern Architecture’ (2018) to the half-ton boulder of Alicja Kwade’s ‘Stellar Day’ (2013) revolving in painfully anti-clockwise fashion. Both David Austen’s waggish film, ‘Smoking Moon’ (2007) and George Melies’ vintage moving picture, ‘Le Voyage dans la Lune’ (1902), that inspired it, provide lightness, though it is left to ‘From home’ (2018), Peter Liversidge’s seemingly free-standing tape measure and Jonny Lyons’ ladder in ‘High Bias’ (2018) to really defy gravity.
But nothing on this planet can compete with the images taken by NASA and the crews of Apollo 8 and 9. Astronaut Bill Anders’ seminal 1968 photograph ‘Earthrise’ encapsulates a new dawn and astonishes still. (Neil Cooper) ■ Ingleby Gallery, until 20 Oct, free.
LIBERTY ART FABRICS & FASHION A history of the iconic label that will have stylists drooling ●●●●●
It’s now 140 years since Arthur Lasenby Liberty opened his emporium on London’s Regent Street and began writing his own peculiarly British chapter in fabric design history. This exhibition, adapted from a show at the Fashion & Textile Museum in London, explores this history, one dress at a time. Liberty began life as an importer of fabrics from the Far East,
feeding the desire among British aesthetes for all things oriental. But Arthur quickly realised there was money to be made by printing more affordable fabrics at home with similar designs. In the early years of the 20th century, as the market grew for comfortable, loose-fitting dresses, he added a dressmaking department too.
It was in the inter-war years that the classic Liberty fabrics emerged, finely patterned florals which were made into tea dresses and house-coats. At a time when people felt they needed reassurance, Liberty spoke of stability and better days.
To seize the zeitgeist in the 1950s, designers reworked art
nouveau designs into dress fabrics in psychedelic colours. Strong colours and bold patterns continued through the 1960s, beloved of designers such as Mary Quant and Jean Muir (whose first job was as a stockroom assistant at Liberty). But in the tricky years of the 1970s, Liberty drew on its archive for soft florals to be turned into floaty peasant dresses by designers like Annabelinda. The decades since have seen Liberty fabrics maintain a presence in the fashion industry, rather than leading the field. But, just when they might have seemed to lose their edge, in walked Richard Quinn, stealing fashion headlines with his clashing innovations. The story of Liberty is a story of repeated reinvention, how a winning idea can work again and again. Anyone who loves vintage clothes will be drooling before they’re halfway round. (Susan Mansfield) ■ Dovecot Studios, until 12 Jan 2019, £9 (£4.50).
8–15 Aug 2018 THE LIST FESTIVAL 103