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SANCTUARY
Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, until Mon 29 Sep 000
As a project, Sanctuary deserves wholehearted support in its aim to address issues related to human rights, forced migration and displacement. It‘s also encouraging to see Glasgow City Council collaborate with Amnesty International and the Scottish Refugee Council in their efforts to raise awareness of these concerns. In its attempt to embrace contemporary art, however, Sanctuary is not an unmitigated
With an impressive list of big names (including Louise Bourgeois, Shirin Neshat, Hans Haacke, Leon Golub. Jenny Holzer and Bill Viola), Sanctuary was always going to be a guaranteed crowd-puller, but with over 30 artists represented over two
both curatorially and thematically. The theme of human rights is so wide-ranging that despite the title (which presumes a show focused on contemporary concerns over refugees and asylum seekers), the only common ground shared by the artists is that their work has, either
Afghanistan.
indirectly, dealt with socio-political
PHOTOGRAPHY MARIO TESTINO: PORTRAITS Dean Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 15 Jun .0
In a celebrity conscious age. an exhibition of famous faces rs going to pull in the crowds. And here we get a room full of Kate Moss. informal images of Princess Diana. and Madonna. who specified Testrno as her photographer of choice.
Mario Testino is one of fashron's most sought-after photographers who takes commissioned portraits of the rich and famous for Vogue and Vanity Farr. Together with a team of stylists and make—up artists. he does what he's paid to do — make the SUDJOCI look beautiful. devoid of any imperfections.
Blown up to almost billboard sum. the rrnages fall generally into two camps: bold. bright and almost gaudy. or more subtle monochrome studies. And while there are some stunning portraits (Madonna as Evrta Peren, Salma Hayek and Delfrne Bafort) much of them are gurte ordinary. given therr gallery status. The London series of photographs in particular are about as exciting as flicking through someone's photographs of a pissed night out.
The exhibition (‘lesperately tries to express these fashion shots in more artistic terms but even Testino
himself has
\t‘ VI )’ never vrewed his I 9"” work as high art. There have been memorable photographic shows at the National Galleries of late — David Barley. Lee Miller and the brutal. uncompromising portraits by John Deakrn — but this. however. is not one of them. . (Helen Madonna, Atelier Versace, 1995 Monaghani
work covering everything from women‘s rights in the Victorian era (Julie Robert's Restraining Coat) and is a case in point. A number of works Kara Walker‘s affecting silhouettes of are also undeniably dated. Afro-American slaves and white floors, the cohesion of the show is flat plantation owners to Kenny Hunter's politically astute The Lion, the Poet and the Daisy Cutter, which deals with the media's diversion tactics in the coverage of the war in
Several works are exemplary, managing to be emotive without descending into sentimentality consistently or periodically, directly or (notably Mark Wallinger‘s Threshold to the Kingdom), but too much has issues. And so we have an expanse of been seen before. The permanent
Threshold to the Kingdom by Mark Wallinger
sculpture by Eduard Bersudsky, adapted to fit the theme of the show.
undermining the objective of using contemporary art as a vehicle to explore socio-political concerns. Although worth seeing, Sanctuary would have benefited from being smaller, more tightly focused and more sympathetic to the architectural space. Perhaps if a few progressive contemporary artists had been commissioned to make new work, this well-intentioned but sprawling extravaganza could have fulfilled expectations. (Susannah Thompson)
I)RA‘.‘.’IN(3 ANDY WARHOL: DRAWINGS FROM THE 1 9508 lnverleith House. Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, until Sun 25 May .0.
Andy Vv’arhol needs no introduction and nor do most of .7“ his IéillTOllfi
artx'xor‘ks, but hrs , s.rnpie finc- Otto Fenn c.1952 dra'.'.’rr‘.gs of
anonymous young gay rr‘en frorr‘ the earl, aim. If)’ji<.tllf)
more like first-year hrg'n school art work. nerd thr; rr‘a'V"; iconic status to make them ~.-.'orth‘, of l(?.’l(:‘.'.' The, arr,- n‘er'rtorious because they are part of \‘.’arhol's ioirrrie, fr, fame and fron‘ a time when socret‘, regarded lv>rrtosex.rzilzt, as a perwer'sron.
The simple drawrngs trace with genial hurrto ll' ",(L'lllt) men adorning themselves with the signrfrers o? ferr‘rninrt, only a protruding Adam's apple or. more blatantly. a (Jrrr‘rcr' thin moustache denotes masculinity The carter of the rrroustacne rs ()tto Fenn whose photographs Warhol based hrs r’lr'awrngs on, By today 's drag queen standards of transx'estrsm. though. these seerr‘ like slightr. {Efft’rfl‘llléitfr oung nien havrng a bit of dangerous fun apart that is from the bald bloke running a string of pearls between or; teetl‘ nos: that's dangerOusly sexy r,
The poses struck are those of old tr'r‘r: nonr- art'mses. with their fingers curled CCTIUUIIISITI", aroand’ thr- r;r=rn or elegantly clasping Cigarette holders as they stare innocent, rr‘lO space. Their necks and ears are adorned with Jenn/elven. then shourlers sy'xathed in fur and their lips turned into little plun‘p boas.
\r'i’ar'nol's Srn‘ple. edgy lines produce enigmatic portra'tf, that sparkle '.-.'ith hun‘our. so even if it's not great art It is certainly tun. ‘Isabella \Nem
FRANZISKA FURTER doggerfisher. Edinburgh. until CM 31 May .00
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a '.‘ :. L'” THE lIST 87