GLASGOW'S PLACE IN THE SUN AFTER LONDON'S YBA DELUGE IS CONFIRMED
net-round
This year an article in The List presented a critique of the Modern Institute. Now, two of its represented artists are nominated for the TURNER PRIZE —
Alexander Kennedy raises a glass.
hat do you do it two of the artists you
represent are ptit tip for the 2005 Turner
Prize? .lump to your feet. punch the air and order champagne. one supposes. Toby Webster. director of (ilasgow‘s Modern Institute. must hayc been running round his gallery on Robertson Street whooping like a mad man when the Turner l’ri/e nominees were announced earlier this month. Boy done good. As eyery pundit predicted. it was only a matter ol' time before the shrewd professionalism that has been put into the MI paid off. and Glasgow’s place in the stilt alter London’s YBA deluge would be confirmed.
So. what of the artists‘.’ The work of Jim Lambie (pictured) and Simon Starling will receiye the attention it rightly deserves. and the artists will win £20,000 if they are lucky. As the stars of the Modern Institute. their mature work (as is the case with most artists with sayyy) has become branded - is easily identiliable and doesn‘t stray too liar from what you expect. from what sells. Maybe. as Huxley saw it. consistency is for the dead. or as Wilde wrote. is the last refuge of the unimaginatiye. btlt a consistent style is seen as the guarantor of legibility and always taken as signifying seriousness. When that constant is magically tied to quality (as it is here) then we hope that this stylised 'death‘ brings transcendence. The artist quickly becomes canonised and smells eternally ol lresh lilacs. like a dead saint. llabemus papatn'.’
What is commonly referred to as Lambie's muzak aesthetic is more than the dregs of a happening. By mixing Pop and ()p art techniques and iconography
with a traditional minimalist sense of the gallery space as theatre. his beda/Iling surfaces t)\CI\\ helm the View er and create a dinying emironntent where twisted ready-mades are presented. (‘oncept and the clutter ol‘ any obyious theory are kept to a minimum
(in his multi-colotned duct tape Xobop floor. for
example) and the seductions ol' neo-l‘ormalism without irony take over. And Starling is more than the art and language school gradttate with a backpack that /l(’ is made out to be. "lahernas Desert Run’. 2004. tnarries a bike constructed out ol‘ an liames chair to a fuel cell. which he rode across the 'l'abernas desert in Spain. in order to make water to paint a threatened cactus. His work happily sprawls between genres and disciplines. exploding the I'ormalist's stranglehold on aesthetic signilicance.
lI's dil’licult not to be excited (art nerds are twitchy at the best ol’ times); the World Cup ol‘ art is in sight. The naughty (‘assandras ol' the art world know that where pti/es drop. money grows and commerce begins. It's an economic certainty. and let‘s not forget that art is a business. We could bemoan this disenchanted. post-lapsarian state. or grow tip and get on with it. Remember. eyerybody wins in an ad\anced capitalist democracy —— just look at the American art scene in the late l950s and ()(ls. Who knows. the next Pollock could be amongst us -- or may he a llearst or two'.’
An exhibition of the four nominees opens at Tate Britain on Tue 18 Oct 2005. The winner will be announced at Tate Britain on Mon 5 Dec.
>2: Francis Bacon Portraits and Heads Natural born painter whose brilliance with a brush is matched by his unforgiving eye. Substantial exhibition of self- portraits — the face he ‘loathed‘ and paintings of friends and lovers. See review, page 96. National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, until Sun 4 Sep.
:2: Richard Hughes Stuffed legs in long johns and BMX socks never looked so good. Intriguing new sculptural work by this London-based artist. See review. page 96 The Modern Institute, Glasgow, until Fri 15 Jul.
t?» Beck’s Futures 2005 Strong line-up of work by the cream of the UK’s crop. Inhale. my clears, and breath in the scent of ‘Darnley‘, Donald Urquhart's specially created perfume. There’s also film-work by Luke Fowler, tricks by Daria Martin and flower power by winner Christina Mackie. CCA, Glasgow. until Sun IO Jul.
33'! Our Surroundings Take a stroll around Dundee and encounter works made for the DCA’s exhibition which pointedly engage with the city. Future events include Happy Hardcore on a church organ. See review. page 97 and Artbeat. DCA, j Dundee, until Sun 17 Jul. =2: An Aside Berlin-based artist Tacita Dean has curated a show that moves like a stream of consciousness and encounters wood, rocks, dogs. typewriters and flying rolls on its way. See review, page 98. Fruit/narket Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 17 Jul. :2: Degree Shows Peruse the works of future stars of the art world and pick up a bargain or two. See review, page 96. Glasgow School of Art, until Sat 25 Jun, Edinburgh College of Art, until Tue 28 Jun and Tramway. Glasgow, until Sun 26 Jun.
2.5 Jun i' Jul 2001') T'HE LIST 95