Inbreeder
Edinburgh? Cclls'vtiw Gallery, i-"i 2l Mara iii 25 Apr. Loud-mouthed, public-school-educated, mobile-phone- brandishing tossers . . the Scots aren’t perhaps the fairest judge of character when it comes to their English neighbours. Pop over to the Continent and images range from lager-swilling Sun-reading yobbos to the gentility of high-tea and the shooting set.
A new exhibition at Edinburgh’s Collective aims to challenge our perceptions of 'Englishness'. Expect age-old national stereotypes to be turned arse over tit.
Bringing together a group of established young London- based artists, each with an individual idea of what it means to be English, Inbreeder attempts to portray England in all its multi-hued glory, from Hilary Lloyd‘s photographic study of London club life and Bob and Roberta Smith's text-based reminiscence of 605 pop icons, to Gavin Turk's exploration of class and nationhood via a self-portrait outside a stately home.
While glad the English art scene is enjoying unprecedented international attention, Inbreeder's curator Godfrey Worsdale believes views of English artists have tended to be polarised into pretty pastels on the one hand and post-Thatcher punk shock tactics on the other.
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'The whole in-your-face notion of English art is definitely something to do with the Goldsmith's phenomenon, when people like Damien Hirst and Simon Patterson were students in the late 80$,' he says. 'It was a time when students were becoming aware of things like marketing and shock tactics for the press, collectors and critics, with shows like Freeze and Gambler actually being set up by the students.’
Known for juxtaposing contrasting images of ’Englishness', Simon Patterson is showing a wall drawing. Hadrian Pigott’s Blast It presents the ultimate symbol of the landed gentry, a double-barrel shotgun — but with the end sawn off, it is transformed into the iconic tool of the underclasses. Similarly there are Simon Periton's paper doilies — Englishness at its most refined — only here the cut-outs explore images of violence and disorder.
Optimistic that the collaboration will enhance the reputation of the Collective outside Scotland, Worsdale stresses the show has no agenda other than to capture the eclectic nature of contemporary English culture. ’lt’s very exciting for it to be seen in Scotland because there’s something about your near neighbours which is very important,’ he says, ’especially as the Scots and the English have also got such a history of exchange.’ (Claire Prentice)
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Artbeat
Putting the art world in the frame.
‘A 79 HOUR continuous performance to Black Sabbath-styled improvised sound’ might seem like Hell with the volume turned up, but it's one of a number of crossover events between live art and music at Glasgow's Transmission. SOMETHING Aaaah! NOTHING, a collaboration with Glasgow’s 13th Note bar which runs until Sun 5 Apr. Call Transmission for details on 0141 552 4813.
THE RICHARD HOUGH Bursary has just upped its prize money to £17,000, making it Scotland’s richest art prize. Administered by Stills Gallery, the award is open to artists based in Scotland working in photography-related media and video. For the first time, the work of shortlisted artists will be shown at Stills in September. For further information send a SAE to Stills (see listings for address).
A BIG HIT at last year’s Documenta, Johann Grimonprez’s film Dial H-l-S- T-O-R-Y — an extraordinary collage of news footage of airplane hijacking through the ages — is to feature in When Worlds Collide at Glasgow's CCA this June. Curated by Tanya Leighton, ex-Transmission committee member, the show is also to include stills from the 'pope of trash’ John Waters's film Zapruder, in which the late and great Divine plays one-time First Lady, Jackie Kennedy
SNAPPER OF DEAD flesh on the mortuary slab, Andres Serrano is one of a number of artists to talk human form and taboos in a new Channel 4 series Vile Bodies. The three-parter, beginning Mon 23 Mar, also features obesity-obsessed Jenny Saville and Joel-Peter Witkin, who photographs deformed and mutilated bodies against a Renaissance-style setting. See TV preview, page 96.
Armless affair: Joel-Peter Witkin's Satiro