ART REVIEW
Winging Art
From birdsong to chicken farming, the latest creation from Dalziel and Scullion takes on the feathered variety as Ann Donald finds out.
The north eaSt of Scotland has proved to be an unusual source of inspiration to the artistic partnership of Louise Scullion and Matthew Dalziel since they moved to the small fishing village ofSt Combs in 199l. in fact. their highly praised work The But/mar, which attracted a starburst of rave reviews at the Venice Biennale and at fimgfeix. was only one of a series of works relating to their ‘aqua' surroundings near the l’eterhead coast.
This month sees an exhibition of three i of their installations at CCA. two of ' which follow the aqua theme while a third strikes out on a new subject. though still pertinent to the working culture of their geographical base — chicken farming.
Titled li’ing it takes the form of three oval shapes on the floor onto which
gether: the chicken farm that inspired Wing, Dalziel and Scullion's latest creation
feather close to
Birds of a
video foolilgc 0f L‘hiCkCHS ill VilllOUS 3 80.000 chickens in each of the eight stress the difference between these wild f sandy beach and thh lhcrc‘s lhc hmcch Slit—’05 in W” mic CYCIC l5 Will-CUM. AS barns, but they are fed the best food 3 birds who have their freedom yet must gas plum like St Fcrgug whlch looks Scullion explains. the film is by no , and shielded froru the cold.‘ The aim of ; brave the cold and find their own food. ; like Tokyo when lit up at night and the "1611115 11 ,illilillllcnlill Slillt‘lllcnl by (10- ' Hing. she adds. is ‘to look instead at and the chickens who are well looked ; satellite ills-hes, the mam-g aha [he gooding city-stickers on the rights and f the single-mindedness ofthis pursuit 3 after but have no freedom.’ surreal lorries of fish and ice.’ Given wrongs of rearing chickens. 10! Ol and at the interesting mirror it holds tip : For Scullion and partner, Dalziel, the i this abundance of raw inspirational people up here are employed in the I to society.‘ aim is to distil the elements around material it would scent that the duo {00d indUSlly and thY 1‘1ch (Wit6 3 , The film is accompanied by a . them and then show the results in the 3 have no need to move into the visual different relationship“) {000 than 5 haunting soundtrack of sea birds such city. ‘lt really is an incredibly beautiful landscape of the city fora few years someone in the city.’ shc [mints OUI. as fulmars, oyster catchers. curlews and area aesthetically.‘ she says. ‘There's a yet.
‘It's easy to make judgments and it can : geese all of which fly over the chicken real juxtaposition between the ancient Dulziel and Scullion are u! CCA.
untouched landscape and miles of (ilusgmi; Sat 16 Der—Sim 28 Jun.
Scam (tulle ‘1 Cm“! mall-“FY ‘0 590 l barns. Scullion says, ‘we wanted to
Centre, charts all this and more.
Tracing the architectural innovation of
the US and its fall-out response in the
f West, through a wealth of original
material and explanatory texts, this exhibition, curated by the Canadian
Centre for Architecture in Montreal, is
fascinating. it touches on ideas of
~ urbanisation and the burgeoning mechanical age. There are two more
' ‘isms’ to take in —- Taylorism and
Fordism - ‘scientific theories’
5 believed to pep-up efficiency in the
workplace and on the production line.
Europe, though, was not into spoon-
fed tactics for the modern age.
Exciting things were happening this
side of the Atlantic with le Corbusier
in France, Gropius in Germany and
lofan in Russia and this too is
illustrated. Yet the US did give a kick
up the butt to the 19th century hang-
over notions of design and
development. Arguably, in the twilight
years of the 20th century with talk of
[EITHE— 3 scenes or rule WORLD 10 come '
You have to hand it to them, the Soviets were big on architectural schemes and dreams. Take their plans ; for revitalising Moscow in the 403 and 50s. Huge, monumental, towering edifices, adorned with freeze-frame . action statues dwarf the automobile l and the passer-by. llot that these ' soaring structures reaching into the sky were called skyscrapers - that smacked too much of the U S of A.
They were ‘tali buildings’ for a i Stalinist age. But it was America, not only last inciting an international l thirst for Coca Cola, who prompted a 3 global generation of architects to
think bigger and build higher.
Be it the urban dream, the highway or the high-rise, America had a vision for the modern age and by the early 20th
i ‘ I if Up, up and away: Kazlmierz Podsadecki's City - Mill of Life 1929; and Erich Mendelsohn’s
century was a prime move! and Shake' l illustration of the Equitable Trust building the urban nightmare and the
in all things architectural. As flew ' architectural pastiche, another kick York and Chicago rose up, , travellers and the curious to check it 205 Fritz Lang was inspired to make from somewhere is needed, (Susanna technological breakthroughs made i out, but not everyone swallowed the the futuristic horror-cum-fantasy film, Beaumont) ' building the impossible possible. 1 American way. Le Corbusier for one. i Metropolis.
Timely stuff, for as she toned-up her 1 lie described flew York in 1935 as a 1' Scenes of the World to Come - scenes of the wow (a cam, - POIlllcal muscle lII Reshaping a Post- I ‘talry catastrophe’, and likened the us l European Architecture and the gamma” Amman”, and ",8
Gm" Wat Wild. tho “3 could display to a ‘tall young man afflicted by the 1 American Challenge 1893—1960, American Challenge 1393-1950 15 at a new kind of architectural wizardry to obscure evils of his age’. Others found 2 00mm"! getting its only British the City Art Centre, Edinburgh until give further clout. From the east came , it menacing. While in flew York in the 5 showing at Edinburgh’s City Art sat 513”,
82 The List 15 Dec l995-ll Jan I996