12 THE LIST if} 30 Jan 2003
He’s a part-time DJ, a former fanzine darling and one of Scotland’s most celebrated sculptors. So why doesn’t JIM LAMBIE know what he’s doing? Words: Jack Mottram
says Jim [.ambie. by way ol‘ a greeting. ‘I haven't got a clue.‘ This is not the most auspicious opening gambit in a conversation about. well. what’s going in the new show.
It‘s not a surprise. though. Lambie makes work that looks as il‘ he's rushed into the gallery and promptly rushed out again. leaving a trail of work in his wake. Whether it‘s a floor pasted over with stripes ol‘ luridly coloured insulation tape. or a 'l‘echnics l2l() turntable doused in gritty globs ol' glitter. Lambie puts stuff in galleries that oozes l'eyered on—the-spot creation. This is not a studio-bound artist who labours over precise configurations. tweaking objects into place to sate that conceptual monkey on his back.
’ll' the work isn’t made entirely in the space. it’s put together in the space.‘ Lambie conlirms.
It was the same with his recent exhibition in Miami. He had the concept in his head and he knew what he wanted to use. but it came together only in the last two days when he gathered the materials and worked out the best way to put them together. “There’s always a lot of running around.‘ he says. lot" this last piece. I had the idea to do lloor sculptures. but when I got to the galler there were three large drains on the floor and they were just going to interfere with the work and interrupt it. So I ended tip doing a black duct tape cross- hatching across the floor. That was something generated there. out ol~ necessity. You need to deal with this. you need to deal with that. For me. rightly or wrongly. working like that puts an energy in the work that it woulan have il‘ I had the piece sitting in a studio for six months.‘
This is. though. the only point on which Lambie concurs with the usual interpretation of what he does. He seems to delight in swatting away coiwentional readings of his work. Music is the prime example. Lambie was in the Boy Hairdressers. a Glasgow group that tend to be branded legendary — or at least seminal — by a certain breed ol‘ l‘anxinc—writer. He‘s a working disc jockey. as well as an artist. More than that. his work is littered with allusions to
‘ I f you want to know what‘s going in the new show.‘