Visual Art '
MIXED St lO‘.‘.' AN ASIDE SELECTED BY TACITA DEAN Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 17 Jul 0000
Artist Tacita Dean has been flagged up and presented as the star curator here and, if you know her work, there is much to be intrigued by. But if you don‘t, don’t worry - simple and complex lines of association run between the pieces. On all sorts of levels it becomes irresistible trying to draw connections and unravel something very personal. Most importantly, however, the Berlin-based British artist has assembled some fascinating work.
Paul Nash is a strong presence in the first room. Photographs of natural forms in ‘Swanage’, 1936, are cut up and stuck over a watercolour sea background. Next to this Eileen Agar’s “Rocks Ploumanac’h, Brittany, France’, 1936, stand as four small images, taking the abstraction of rock forms into further minimalism; one like a prehistoric, thick dinosaur skin, another crevice deep in shadow. Such essentialism of nature is thrown into sharp relief by Thomas Schutte’s ‘l-lund lll’, 2005. Sitting on a wooden plinth this great, shiny dog perches as an Egyption Sphinx, utterly artificial and shiny; its saddle like a helmet and stars on its shoulders indicating military authority. Where its front paws meet, a vagina shape is formed. In contrast with Agar’s fissure, this one is crude and violating.
Along the side of the room are seven small black and white Nash prints of tree roots and bleached skeletons of trees - suddenly you start spotting shapes and forms that appear in his paintings. Next door, meanwhile, a soundtrack to Lothar Baumgarten’s ‘There I like it better than in Westphalia, El Dorado’, 1968-76, indicates a much darker take on nature. Her slides of swampy, earthly riches present a wet, exotic world of unknown threat and intrigue.
Across the way, that most mechanical of forms, the typewriter, is lovingly photographed in a series of poses, capturing its best shiny angles. Rodney Graham found this gorgeous 19305 model in a second-hand shop and, having recorded its glossy, exacting charms, he proceeds to gently cover it in fine snow-like flour. The particles sift onto the keys and the body, drifting into banks, breaking under their own weight and building into soft peaks again. It’s mesmorising.
If there is a subtext to all these works, it is whispering — look closer.
Upstairs an altogether different atmosphere reigns. The space is lighter and the work corresponds. Yvan Salomone’s large watercolours dominate the room with bright, lonely images of rusting pipes and oil barrels.
Just don’t miss the flying bread rolls on the way out. (Ruth Hedges)
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Dead Tree by Paul Nash
98 THE LIST 2*". hr r' H V)“,
,' It l>ll 'irt ItlSlAl l ATION SOPHIE MACPHERSON Sorcha Dallas, Glasgow, until Sat 25 Jun 0..
Sophie t.la::i,herson is telling a stery about a dancer. It ll‘iglll be tne illlétllllKXl future cf an ().(;l'dlltl,llk)'.t:3. under-talented girl ballerina. er the ladmg li‘iZ-lllOl'lOS of an over- tl‘.e t.il| til: VHS} girl, bit. either way. the focus is on feet. In the newly. opened second space at Sorcha Dallas. wood panels are suspended from the (JQElillg. rust above head height. each Vitill a booted leg Cut into or applied to their surfaces. There are stump, little legs ‘.'-.llll curled-up toes. and graceful legs outstretched. a|| dancing.
Next door, three disembodied legs. made lfOll‘ interlocking lllll‘l)f3 of cast concrete. sit atcp a tal‘,le angl the room is dominated by éi<1<)"$3!l'll(:'.'(>'t r-ke pack ng crates ready fcr transport. It looks imposing. but is l‘.()i'()'.‘.'. There we llif‘lf; of narrative and the packing crates are theatrical in two senses; a conyrncng irusxon of the lt‘tllttlétlltz backstage world. white the concrete legs are like tl‘e ()Lrl(2()l‘.‘0 of a curse.
Titles all further i,.",inters to a half-told folk stop, the egg, itaneis are named Dance. little gentleri an!’ (pictured) like a Jolly threat. and a 5;!‘()ti;grat)lt of scrappy hill'lélliles cf m.,re ltrtls is called ‘Thieves. murderers 8. other (I’lllll"él s'. as if the births .'.<,-ieg"1.):.3ish ri‘erner‘itces stripped from the gallons. This .vn spered hinting is nanat g:.es tylacptierson's its strength. and in paring back We da"r:e to Its basic t2iiriian element. she allows a rich possible tale to unfold. iJélfiK Mott’an‘.
Detail from Green Corner
PAINTING SEAN SCULLY Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, until Thu 23 Jul 0000
Bern in Dublin in 1949. educated in London and new resident in New York. Sean SCllll,’ belongs to that generatiOn of artists who don't rust loxe pant they reye. -r‘ it. Only four Oil paintings hang in the two rooms of the Ing'ehy Gallery. but each one. wrth its big glossy colours, hangs firm. Look at me. they say, ‘.Vllll humility No shouting. .lust “soak me in. sense the comfort and breathe.
It's a natural soothing from the heart. Soully's building blocks of colour moxe with mean deep slate and forest green shadow. The ol they are name of bounces light and l.etra,s eyery stroke of his Wide brush. Like flowers n season. :i‘att red and ochre peep out from more sombre but flagrantly shiny t()"e:;. In these lLll‘(l(llllOlll{t' abstracts. Sciilly finds contrasts and Subtle smilarities. A brush stroke t().'l Green Corner) goes against the grain but shows .ip like a secret s gr‘ in the sun.
Connecting thll both British painterly tradit-ons and American abstract serisil,ilities. Scull, grOunds himself in a mantra ll‘ tarnicri a wa' or line. at once protectiye and rexealing, represents all thuigs. lle builds from the fabric of l‘iiiiianity And though inspired by church art as a Child. he r‘a n25: toti<:nsto't~:=s. not illltll'[)liii".(;8 ,olours tone and hunt. compositions are l‘a'rrienioas these pi'ritings (‘.,iil;l keep a trying body company happily for gears.
A; well as the ill” work. two watercolours architect traitstia'er‘t, s ken staid-art‘s. \.'.t‘.ile tliree prints bathe in the light of their (>in sililir‘gs For t is I" (it t"'it 8:1. \31 art sl‘rnes (Ali. e Barn)