‘A DARK SEAM OF ALIENATION RUNS THROUGH MUCH OF THE
WORK ON SHOW'
.. . ' ~-_.3.._ . Nothing will be as it was By Chris Orr
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Ailsa Boyd travels to deepest, darkest Dundee and returns with tales of tigers in paddling pools and fairies in cagoules at DCA.
t‘s not often you enter an exhibition to be confronted by live birds and two long-tailed glossy starlings in a huge aviary. These. like much in this exhibition. make the viewer stop and look extremely closely. to ensure they are ‘real‘. The nine artists exhibiting at Where the llT/(l 'I'lii'ngs' Arc explore our complicated relationship with the outdoors. defamiliarising the ordinary and the 'natural‘. examining ideas of wildness and the unfamiliar. with a dark seam of alienation running through much of the work on show. Duncan Marquiss' video. ‘Roggenwolf' fails to
maintain the claustrophobic tension and terror of
hallucinogenics. but his coloured pencil drawings convey an uneasy sexuality; the blond youth of the Third Reich enjoying the cult of sunlight. lixquisitc and strange. Christopher ()rr‘s miniature romantic landscapes are peopled with tiny backpack-clad figures from the fifties. encountering huge animals and examining them with their binoculars. These are fairy people in cagoules taking a field trip into the darker regions of the psyche.
During her three year 'expedition‘ around Scotland. Melanie (‘arvalho searched for exotic plants to relate her Portuguese-Indian descent to Scotland. Although the unedited scrapbook style of displaying ephemera is a little obvious and lazy. her personal journey is colourfully conveyed in the drawings. collages and inkblot paintings of the ‘alien species' she found. CalMac timetables aside. the super-8 film is beautifully nostalgic: scenes of palm trees in dreich weather. and clambering through teeming tropical
forests in waterproofs evoke childhood memories of holidays. ller accomplished oil paintings of
silhouetted magical forests could be peopled by boggles. wild beasts. or even intrepid Victorian lady travellers.
llana llalperin documents just such explorations with ‘liinei'gent Landmass'. the volcanic island ltrdinandea. which only existed for a few months in
1831 btit managed to gather seven names. Arc her
drawings landscapes or maps'.’ ller pencil marks evoke the remaining pumice stone and geological slides.
Henrik llakansson's rather dead looking tree is marooned in the centre of the space. The percussiye sound of Thai crickets that issues from its tiny speakers combines with all the other soundtracks in the gallery to produce a rather more controlled effect than the wild nature he initially captured.
Beasts are tamed in the surreal way that only Hollywood can achieve in Diana Thater‘s film of Tippi lledren’s (‘alif'ornain big cat sanctuary. Bathed in a
glorious green 'l‘echnicolor window light. the film of
young tigers playing with balls and in paddling pools. looks more like a seventies home movie of children. displayed on a domestic projection screen.
This exhibition veers between the wild and tamed. exotic and prosaic. palm tree and cagoule. fantasy and reality. just as the Lonely Pit)ch spiderw-eb writings reveal the tension between pattern and language. the discovery of his message ajourney we have to work at.
Where the Mid Things Are, DCA, until Sun 30 July 0000
Visual Art >i<
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‘ THE BEST EXHIBITIONS
* Where the Wild Things Are An exhibition of work by nine artists comprising drawings. installation and film. The work on show examines different theories of nature and the outdoors. Each artist brings a personal understanding of the Wild into the gallery. drawing on memory, the uncanny and romantic expressions of its sublimity. Dundee Contemporary Art, Dundee, until Sun 73 Aug. See review opposite.
>l< Glasgow School of Art MFA Sixteen fully fledged artists take over the galleries at the Tramway. The continued success of this program is evidenced in the diversity and maturity of the work on display. including enormous installation elements that dominate the space. breathing rubberised pigs. clay face adornments and a painting or two. Tramway, Glasgow, until Sun 25 Jun.
=l= Chad McCail New large gouache paintings that bring together elements of graphic art. classroom text books and other ‘how to' manuals. McCall condenses Freudian psychoanalysis. theories of the rise and fall of civilisation. economic patterns and environmental concerns without ever losing his seductive sense of humour. Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, until Sun 73 Aug. * Dada’s Boys: Identity and Play in Contemporary Art This exhibition re-examines seminal work by three of Dada's founding fathers - Picabia, Man Ray and Duchamp - placing them alongside artist's work from the 70s to the present day. including Jeff Koons, Sarah Lucas. Mathew Barney. Roderick Buchanan and many more. The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sun 76 Jul.
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