‘THE FATED JOURNEY WILL INVOLVE THE CANNIBALISATION OF THE BOAT'

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Alexander Kennedy speaks to Alexia Holt, the Director of Cove Park about what Simon Starling has been getting up to by the bonny banks of Loch Long.

her his recent success as 2005 llll‘iiL‘i‘ l’ri/e

winner. Simon Starling was asked to create a

work for (me Park (the first time they hay e commissioned an artist). a new work that relates to the 50 acre site that the park coyers. lico pods rise up from the ground like habitable drumlins. and ey'eryone I know wants to live there.

liollowing on from his ‘Shetboatshed' where he

ti‘ansl‘orined a wooden dwelling into a boat. rowed it down the Rhine and deposited in a gallery. Starling has created another project-based piece that continues his fascination with transl'ormation. recycling and a kind ol’ will'til anti-aesthetic. .-\|e\ia Holt. the Director of (me Park tells us about this idyllic place and what Starling has been up to. AK: So. what's the thinking behind (‘oye l’ark'.’ AH: This is now our sey'enth year of' pt‘o\ iding residencies for national and international artists working in all art liit'ttis. We pi'oyide artists with the time and support to enable them to deyclop new projects and new ideas. No restrictions are placed upon the artists in terms of‘ the requirement to produce a final piece of work. exhibition or Performance. at the end of the residency and so the) haye much more freedom to undertake research. esperiment. create entirely new work or esplore new ways ol‘ working. AK: Why did you decide to start commissioning artists'.’ AH: The idea was to tise the facilities and site here at (me Park to their full and to inyite a \‘lSliitl artist to produce a new work in response to the site itself. its context and history. In parallel with the aims of the residency programme. we wanted to place the emphasis not so much upon the requirement to

produce a l'inished work. but to proyide a framework within which a new project could he deyeloped oy er a two year period and to allow the artist to hayc a substantial amount of time for research. tleyelopiiieiit and production.

AK: Why did you decide to ask Simon to come and work at (‘oy e l’ark‘.’

AH: It was interesting to approach Simon as a number ol' his earlier projects had engaged with aspects oi the region (Argyll and Butel. llis concern for the processes oi production. the contexts inyolyed and the engagement he has with the meaning and same ol the objects he employs and transforms in his work suggested that the opportunity of the (‘oye Park (‘ommission would. we hoped. be of particular interest to Simon. Happily it was?

AK: What's Starling been working on‘.’

AH: The new project. '.-\uto.\ylopyi'ocy'cloboros‘. responds to the history and geography ol‘ the ('lyde estuary and Loch Long and specil'ically to the |‘)th century deselopment of marine steam technology and. ultimately. to the presence now of the nuclear submarines based at the (’oulpoi't and l‘aslane Nasal bases. The work will take the form of a circular. entropic \oy age ot‘ a restored 20ft clinker-built boat on the waters of Loch Long.

The lated journey w ill inyolye the cannibalisation of

the boat. its steam engine being led by the wood it is constructed out ol‘. It will then be raised li‘otti Loch Long's murky depths and exhibited. Now take a deep breath and say ‘:\uto.\ylopy'riicy'cloboros. the sound of a weighty idea sinking to the bottom of a lake.

Autoxylopyrocycloboros, Cove Park, Argyll and Bute, Fridays until 27 Oct.

Visual Art

5‘4!»

* Susan Derges - Azure An exhibition of large-scale photograms that envelop the viewer. confuse our sense of spatial positioning and direction. The images can very loosely be described as seascapes. landscapes and still lives, created out of a process in which photographic paper is immersed in liquid and the almost random, abstract results presented. lngleby Gallery, Edinburgh, unti/ Sat 22 Jul. See review, page 90.

* Tony Swain - The Flashes that came to stand for us Works in gouache on collaged paper invoke Futurist action and American assemblage art. This modest exhibition presents new work by the artist. born out of a process that manipulates and layers space, Creating pattern out of bodies and new forms by melding colours found on the newspaper he uses. See review, page 91. The Modern Institute. Glasgow, until Sat 22 Jun.

* Test Transmission Put on your darkest sun glasses and enter a darkened gallery to watch telly. The CCA present a mini retrospective of work by artists and collectives who have used video and television as a medium for their work. CCA, Glasgow, unti/ Sat 22 Jul. See review, page 9 7.

* Where the wild things are An exhibition of paintings. drawings. installation and film by nine artists. The work examines the relationship between the outside and the uncanny. taming the beast and bringing the wildness of ‘the unknown' into the gallery space. DCA, Dundee. until Sun 30 Jul.

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