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DRAWING. PAINTING HANNELINE VISNES: SLEEPSHAPES Doggerfisher Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sat 7 Jul 2007 0000
Within Hanneline Visnes' intricately layered drawings and paintings one finds a multitude of mysterious broken and distorted references, where stories begin yet lead us nowhere. As an artist interested in the long history of painting. Visnes plays with two Outmoded ‘Sunday painter' themes — painterly abstraction and the representation of nature. Her large paintings question the idea of abstract painting as wallpaper or interior design. Wallpaper patterns are loosely copied by hand onto the surface, with floating forms painted over them. In ‘Double Portrait' finger smears of orange and yellow dance over the paisley pattern-like flames. while in ‘lmperial Purple' deep purple paint soaks into the wallpaper like a ghastly phantom stain.
The wallpaper implies interiors and the gestural paint takes on a hallucinogenic form so uneasy narratives ensue. bringing the works closer to representation than abstraction. Visnes‘ depiction of nature is equally surreal, and deliberately simulated. In the literally titled biro drawing ‘Bird Face' (pictured) four eagles heads float within a blackened head shape as if conversing. the repetition of the same bird head revealing to us she has ‘broken the rules' by copying from a magazine page rather than drawing from life. Similarly. in ‘Possessions‘. a leopard appears to mercilessly devour a lamb's body. yet zoom out and this is a picture on an 18th century snuffbox. again hovering over an intricately drawn wallpaper background. Rough corners. nicks and tears left exposed exemplify Visnes' cheeky. irreverent attitude to her work. Yet her greatest strength is her ability to compose such a striking and memorable equilibrium between multi- layered complexity and balanced. ordered elegance. (Rosie Lesso)
We're going ti
Visual Art
INSTALLATION AND DIGITAL WORK GROUP SHOW: IRATIONAL.ORG CCA, Glasgow, until Sat 21 Jul
For those who struggle in vain to avoid the omnipresence of rectilinear electronic information boxes, irrational.org at the CCA may not be for you. This loose collection of media artists came together in 1996, to create work that responded to the dotcom revolution of the mid-late 90s, making web-based work that parodied the boom in e-commerce and the ensuing neo- capitalist euphoria. A cursory tour around their website (irrational.org) could leave you with the impression that the site is a collection of self indulgent blogs, but click quick and randomly on some of the hyperlinks and you’ll find out what they are all about.
Heath Bunting’s page - one of the six artists exhibiting at the CCA, including Daniel Garcia Andujar, Technologies to the People, Rachel Baker, Kaer Brandon, Minerva Cuevas, Mejor Vida Corporation and Marcus Valentine - contains a collection of links that show what he’s been up to since 1990. In his hyperbolic biographical statement he proudly states that his ‘self taught and authentically independent work has never been bought or sold.’
A dark seam of humour runs through most of the information on display, culminating in the collective’s most recent work, which has now popped out of the computer screen to contaminate everyday reality with a sense of hyper or un-reality. Minerva Cuevas’ site sells bit and bobs to make life easier in a world overloaded with information and terrorists. As part of the Mejor Wda Corporation (Better Life Corporation) you can buy her ‘Safety Pills’ (to protect yourself from danger on the subway) and ‘Barcode Stickers’ (to make fruit and vegetables cheaper). The work on display will focus on these ‘real life’ objects, products that ‘interrogate and overcome economic, political, and social boundaries in real space, producing a great deal of comic relief, among other things’. Hopefully there won’t be a rectilinear information box in sight. (Alexander Kennedy)
Leigh Ferguson
DESIGN THE SCOTTISH SHOW The Lighthouse, Glasgow, until Sun 12 Aug 0000
As part of the Six Cities Design Festival. The Scottish Show at Glasgow's Lighthouse presents an exhibition of design talent that covers almost every wall and floor of the previously underused gallery. from the grOund floor foyer to sixth floor viewing platform. taking in the toilets and the stain/vells on the way.
Exhibits range from an enormous letter ‘G' — a fusion of interior. exhibition and graphic design work by Graven Images — to intricate jewelry designs by Marianne Anderson that explore reflection. order and disorder. But. while there is such a wide range of objects and ideas on display. the curators have managed to give the exhibition a homely feel. With cushions. chairs. benches. and lampshades filling up most of the space. Everything presented manages to be useable and inspirational.
Some of the highlights include Alex Milton's 'My Souvenir' (tables and seating designed by Paul Kerlaff). where gallery Visnors can sit and play with plasticine. creating their own temporary souvenir of Glasgow. Hill. Jophson and Robb’s 3D visualisation of a “Temple For All' also aspires to be all-incluswe and interactive. The proposed 21 metre-high spliced conical SCulpture, opens up to the elements. and provides a smooth. cool cave-like space for VlSIlOFS to occupy. Leigh Ferguson's 'Before and After Portraits' is a humorous video prOJection of a selection of ten minute makeovers. where hairstyles are tweaked and smiles are raised as a bevy of styled beauties from Glasgow‘s streets enter and exit the frame.
(Alexander Kennedy)
21 Jun—:3 Jul 2007 THE LIST 89