MIXED MEDIA
HANNELINE VISNES doggerfisher, Edinburgh, Sat 15 May-Sat 10 Jul
In the past, Hanneline \fisnes’ paintings and watercolours have dealt in uncomfortable juxtaposition and repeated motif, matching a delicately drawn peacock with a lumpen mass of rock, or making looping iterations of bird heads. Now, approaching her first solo show in Scotland, \fisnes is refining her interest in pattern and incorporating ideas of landscape in her work.
‘A lot of the work for the show has patterns from Persia taken from things like tiles on Mosques,’ she says. ‘They’re natural shapes, but forced into a geometric system; they are to do with the ordering of the universe, to do with ideas of paradise.’
As well as this abstract utopian theme, the show’s title - Ring Around Paradise Square - introduces a political element. ‘The title refers to the square in Baghdad where Saddam Hussein’s statue used to stand,’ she says. ‘I don’t think you can deal with something connected to that culture without an acknowledgement of what is going on at the moment. And it is important to look at these patterns right now. The image we’re being fed of that part of the world is so hideous, so it
culture there.’
MIXED MEDIA DESIGNER BODIES Stills, Edinburgh, until Sun 6 Jun .00
Designer Bodies is a playful yet comprehensive look at genetic engineering and science. Since Dolly the Sheep was cloned many weird and wonderful stories about genetic engineering have propagated in the public consciousness. This exhibition, which marries science and art. addresses some of the pros and cons of biotechnology.
Gair Dunlop's Century 27 Calling is an acknowledgment for the third man of the double helix, Wilkins. Gair juxtaposes black and white images beside a colourful commercial for science in the 5305. Sitting between these 508 stereotypes you realise that we are still as awestruck about science today as we were in the 20th century.
Christine Borland and Jacqueline Donachie both tackle the question of genetic intervention. Borland's Home Testing dice game may seem flippant but at present we all take a genetic gamble. In the future. however, with a little genetic tinkering. we could all be the design of our dreams. Donachie‘s DM is a personal tribute to her family, some of whom suffer from the genetic disease Myotonic Dystrophy. The upbeat tempo of Donachie's text does not mask the menace of the genetic disOrder snaking its way through her family. This work brings to the surface the emotive issues surrounding genetic engineering. Gina Czarnecki's Silvers Alter allows the viewer to play God or scientist and decide who mates and who dies. Will it be this easy in the future? (Isabella Weir)
OM, 2002-04 by Jacqueline Donachie
is important to remember the
In referencing both specific place and utopian non-place, landscapes real and imagined are central to Visnes’ new direction.
‘l’ve always made work with creatures and animals and people,’ she says. ‘But I suddenly realised that none of that was there in the new work. The paintings aren’t really landscapes - that’s just not the way my imagination works - but a lot of the paintings are going to be in the landscape format, so at least there’s
Untitled 2004
that allusion to the natural landscape there.’
But this move into new territory does not signal an abandonment of past practice, with much of the uneasy mixture of forms familiar from Wsnes’ earlier work remaining. ‘l’ve always been interested in that quite simple idea of making work that appears to be one thing, but when you look closer is something else,’ she admits. ‘I always feel compelled to have that in the work. For some reason it feels like cheating if I don’t.’ (Jack Mottram)
Hreash House
FILM
ROSALIND NASHASHIBI: SONGS FOR HOME AND ECONOMY
CCA, Glasgow, until Sun 30 May .00
It's the start of a new day in the Hreash household. an extended Palestinian family living in Nazareth, Israel. During the first few minutes of Rosalind Nashashibis new film. she focuses on the outside of the house and the closed front door before she lets us in. Three young children. drowsy with sleep. emerge from the same bed. Two women in the kitchen start to prepare food.
There is no musical soundtrack as in her preVious films; its s0unds come from the cars on the street. a television in the background. conversations and noises coming in from the kitchen. As we follow the preparations for a family dinner. Nashashibi interrupts the scenes. singling out the black and white tiles. the patterned wallpaper. a closed doorway. the fake flowers — the fabric of the building.
Hreash House. by far the best work in her solo show. is a quietly affecting piece. peppered with humour and familiarity. Avoiding any reference to the political climate. Nashashibi unearths the everyday rituals and routines of family life. There is a lovely scene of the young children giggling. all too aware of the camera in front of them. And once dinner is served. the vision of the little ones eating in a separate room on plastic chairs immediately evokes childhood memories of my family get-togethers. There are never enOugh chairs, no matter where y0u live. (Helen Monaghan)
Art
MIXED MEDIA
HELEN BARRON, KATE FONDE & JACCO OLIVER
Transmission, Glasgow, until Sat 29 May 000
If there is a theme to Transmissions latest group show. it is childhood. First come Helen Barron's masks. They are icky things. these. handmade With a clumsmess that might charm, were it not for the fact that the headgear looks like an attempt to make fetish wear from the contents of the dressing up box. Mask and Tights. with its blow-up doll face applied to flesh tone nylon, is like finding a c0|0uring-in book in a sex shop.
Untitled by Kate Forde
Jacco OliVier takes an Opposite tack with his animations. Proiected low on the wall. these draw on nostalgia for childhood imaginings. In Park. a sketched landscape is accompanied by a seagull's cry. before crayon rain lashes down and the scene drifts dreamlike to three huddled figures. who we hear whispering. as grown-ups do around children. Sign is dreamier still. cutting from a seascape to a mot0rway scene which dissolves into a Starry galaxy.
Finally, Kate Forde's untitled paper constructions feature careful cutting and doggedly repeated motifs. The first bulges Out from a corner. With interlocking loops of purple Crépe. dotted With tiny triangles. hanging in a tangle. The second is a swarm of pink and red flies. packed densely at its centre before spreading to consume a wall of the gallery. Both fragile and solid. there's a pleasmg clash between the finicky component parts and the almost overbearing final term. Here, again, is something childlike at work - if only in the dogged determination to complete a simple repetitive task — but where Barron Subverts and OIIVier celebrates. Forde elaborates. adding a finesse and preCision to seemineg simple cut-out forms. (Jack Mottram)
13-27 Ma; 2004 1112 US? 83