Visual Art
Review
scur PIURL. Pl-lOlOGRAPHY AND HIM WHAT MAKES YOU AND I DIFFERENT -
GROUP SHOW Tramway, Glasgow. until Sun 26 Mar 000.
What Makes You and I Different is an exhibition of self- portraits, but one that seeks at every turn to take a sidelong glance at self-portraiture, focusing on artists who place themselves in their work using different means, for different ends. It is also a show arranged in a way that makes it, if not quite didactic, then at least persuasive, leading the viewer through sets of related works, drawing clear lines between them.
First up is Matthew Barney, an artist who tends to repel and attract in equal measure by making works at once open and bewildering. So it is with ‘Drawing Restraint 9: Mirror Position’, which simply shows
94 THE LIST 16—30 Mar 2006
Have him Be him by Karla Black
Glitter Island by Beagles and Ramsay
Barney and his wife, Bjork, intimately joined yet forever apart, then muddies the water some with Shinto robes, a tea ceremony without the tea, and 3 nautical setting.
Mat Collishaw removes attraction from the equation, gobbing phlegm at the viewer from the other side of a mirror. Next, Peter Land falls forever down a flight of stairs as a starscape opposite moves toward the viewer - tragi-comic slapstick, with the emphasis on tragedy. This is paired with Wood & Harrison’s ‘Luton’, matching both Land’s deadpan air, and his consideration of the body in space.
Monica Castillo, Beagles & Ramsay and, inevitably, Cindy Sherman form a self-distorting triumvirate. Castillo digitally recasts her face according to friends’ description of it, mirroring Sherman’s work - both question representations of the female. In between them sit Beagles & Ramsay, done up like fops on their Glitter Island folly, laughing at themselves, and at us. (Jack Mottram)
SCULPTURE. PAlNTING AND lNSTALlATlON DEAN HUGHES
KARLA BLACK
DRAVJNG lNSlAl lATlt‘N
DAVID BELLINGHAM - TURNOUT
Heart Fine Art. Edinburgh, until Tue 11 Apr 0..
Insorrhrng one cross to represent every vote cast durrng the Scottish Parliamentary electron rn t Mm 300.4. Bellrngharn has strll got a few more to go before the work can he considered complete The gallery wrll close for a month to emphasise the fact that only half of the electorate voted rn the electron lsee listings for more details)
So. Srnrte ‘lurnout' rs a work in progress, Bellrngharn has provrded other works to rtlad the gallery walls; whrle he goes about hrs business Wrth some of hrs early hlortk colour works from 1999. there rs a srmrlar measured rhythm, though hrs more recent pieces carry a new latent political trmelrness.
Tucked rnto the eves of the Gross Max Archrter:ts' offrrtes. this new mrnr gallery's second offrng seems appropriately asrtetrr: when sat above rts nerghhour. But the gallery and rts show itself are almost rnvrsrhle from the street. and entry to the exhrhrtron rs only granted by a door buzzer. It all smacks of rlrserrfranr:hrsement, hut happrly. 'Turnout' rs the only work on the lrst that rs not up for sale.
(lsla Leaver Yap)
DUNCAN MARQUISS,
JONATHAN OWEN AND HANNELINE VISNES Doggerfisher, Edinburgh, until Sat 1 April 000
anywhere.
Degas' ballet dancers gone feral.
It rs drffrcult to brrng unrty to a grOup show — one can only hope that the work presented lives up to the undercurrent of friendly competrtron and taut mutual respect. and save the day. The group show at Doggerfrsher almost pulls thrs off. but some of the work refuses to contend. or is maybe unable to.
The success story rs Karla Black. whose 'Have hrm Be him‘ (cardboard. sugar paper, chalk lrpstrck and eyeshadow). 2006. draws your attentron but refuses to grve up anythrng easny. The sculpture attempts to stand to rts full herght, but falls back dejected. rejected. Irke a good Idea that's been kicked rn the shrns. It rs a Iectern but there rs nothrng to be said: rt rs the bow of a ship but cannot go
Duncan Marqurss' drawrngs sparkle wrth a brrllrantly Subtle use of colour. although the dark subject matter rs sometimes too literal. Thrs asrde. the multi- lrmbed frgures rn the more suggestive ‘The devrl behrnd the couch'. 2006, seem to be gorng through a process of chanthropy — wearing a tutu of fur and tarls Irke
erlram Morrrs' patterns infect mocked-up everyday objects rn the work of Jonathan Owen, rendering a drone prpe and a securrty alarm pretty useless. Hannelrne Vrsnes’ watercol0urs and paintings are as pretty as Dean Hughes' mrnrmal paper preces are austere. You‘ll hate one and love the other, then come back to Black and Marquiss. (Alexander Kennedy)