Visual Art
PHOTOGRAPHY. VIDEO. INSTALLATION. DRAWING, PAINTING E OPT IN FOR ART EXHIBITION 1 The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, Fri 20 Apr—Sun 6 May
Feelings of intimidation must be invoked in many young I visitors to modern art galleries, the lofty white space commanding respect and control, the art untouchable and immaculate. The Fruitmarket Gallery’s ‘Opt in for Art’ education programme, running for two years, aims at dispelling this mystification by drawing young people’s : attention to the creative processes and ideas behind ’ making and displaying art. This exhibition demonstrates the outcomes from the many artist-led workshops linked to the programme, in which around 2000 young people aged 7-18 have been involved, not just in making the art, but also curating and marketing the show.
Each workshop responds to the exhibition programme; most recently large-scale comic book style drawings have been made in answer to the current Trenton Doyle Hancock exhibition. Previous projects include a surreal collaborative sculpture called ‘Biscuit Wars, Bourbon vs Custard Cream’ made in response to Dada ’5 Boys: Identity and Play in Contemporary Art. The Fred Sandback exhibition also offers inspiration; artist-led workshops in which playful coloured string pieces were made in the gallery, to be developed into more substantial sculptures in school.
One of the major selling points of the Opt in for Art Programme is its exposure to young people art that avoids the schoolwork clichés of technical skill, instead focusing on the power of creative ideas in conceptual and collaborative art. One workshop participant comments, ‘I learned that art doesn’t have to be a good drawing or sculpture . . . there are no boundaries.’ The most compelling aspects of this exhibition will be the processes leading up to the show and the experiences gained along the way. Certainly one hopes this is where the emphasis will be. (Rosie Lesso)
PHOTOGRAPHY. SCREEN PRINTS. FILM INSTALLATION
GRAHAM FAGEN: DOWNPRESSER 5 AI Actsa Park GoMA, Glasgow, until Mon 28 May 00
It's difficult to discern exactly what Graham Fagen is getting at with
his new installation of photographs. screen prints and DVD
projections at GoMA. The exhibition, entitled Downpresser. is a personal response to the bicentenary anniversary of the Abolition of
the Slave Trade Act. and is part of a series of related events planned
by Glasgow City Council to run through 2007. But does a personal response like this tell us anything? It seems that research-based art ‘ has become ‘application form art'. A political point is made. but what is it? All we find out is that Fagen likes reggae, his favourite holiday destination is Jamaica, that he's into Robert Burns (who was going to go to Jamaica to work as a bookkeeper until success and money kept him here).
The exhibition takes its title from the song Downpresser Man by Jamaican reggae musiCIan Peter Tosh (1944-87), an ‘inspired’ soul with a saviour complex who was killed during a robbery. Tosh‘s mother Mama Tosh is present in a photograph, peering through pained eyes. As yOur eyes flick from her face to the kitsch sunset on your right, the gentle sound of drumming and the jazzy low wail of a trumpet pull you through the exhibition space, past previously
down to an open-air spot to view Shawky's new video work. nothing could be less precise or controlled than the weather.
Yet. as the buses finally parked outside the ruins of Tantallon Castle with a blood red sun giving way to a dazzling moon, Collective's grand plan seemed all the more breathtaking for its audaciousness. Shawky's film flashed up. projected onto the side of the huge Tantallon wall. Growing more luminous as the sky darkened. an animated, glitzy rendering of the conjoined : Dome on the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque came into view. Al Aqsa Park's history of Muslim- j Jewish conflict. its annexation by Israeli forces, seemed incongruous to this pristine architectural form transformed by Shawky into a dizzy merry-go-round.
As the looped film rumbled on, however, the Al Aqsa Park's relationship to its projection space became increasingly apparent. Tantallon itself was subject to shifting Scottish and English IOyalties for 300 years until eventual capture by Cromwell in the 16505. Its embattled past of national identities and David-and-Goliath battles with the state competed with Shawky's modern image. Both site and film momentarily collapsed their respective histories. questioning the controlling forces at work in each, and challenging the responsibility of its viewers as idle witnesses to unfolding histories of conflict. (lsla Leaver-Yap)
exhibited screen prints (of ships that Burns planned to travel on). to ' FILM INSTALLATION
the film Downpressser at the back of the gallery. An impromptu WAEL sflAWKy; AL AQSA [DARK performance of Burns' 'Slave's Lament' is being sung on a beach. ‘ Couective Offsite, Sat 31 Mar 0... z The once oppressed inhabitants of the Caribbean are now made to ‘ ‘ ‘ “ ' ' ‘ " ' " work for Fagen's art. (Alexander Kennedy) , ‘I do not intend to control the viewer.‘ says Egyptian artist Wael Shawky, ‘but rather to construct ; the work in a precise fashion where every element is controlled.’ But when Collective herded its Downpresser ' audience onto two buses destined for a mystery location, following the Edinburgh coastline
12—26 Apr 2007 THE LIST 89