www.list.co.uk/visualar.t
Visual Art
REVlEW DRAWING AND SCULPTURE LUCA FREI
lngleby Gallery, Edinburgh, until Thu 29 Jan 00
Entrenched in a Dadaist slipstream of playful bemusement. Swiss-born. Swedish-based artist Frei is usually as mad. bad and fun as a bag of rainbow painted spiders. His contrived installations. which have graced cutting edge galleries in Paris. New York and St Gallen in Switzerland balance the pop art/public art fundamentalism of Claes Oldenburg's best work and the harder conceptionalism of Rachel Whiteread with a sloppier art education vibe. Misconstruction and subversion are his currency. so when his work takes on philosophical cohesion. he's the one who moves the goalposts.
All of which is normally very exciting. Unfortunately this small selection of Frei‘s work (which is also available for salel has all the sagacity of a degree show created in a last minute overnight session.
The main piece — some hung and bolted lengths of maple plywood which have been scaled up to look like some kind of mad geometric square has all the resonance of the Channel A landscape logo. while the four collages and drawings are inept to the point of banality. This is the kind of grubby display of pop philosophical nonsense that the tabloid press like to get on their high horse about. Sadly this forgettable show may not even warrant that kind of attention.
(Paul Dale)
REVlEW MIXED MEDIA REP’E.T’TION
Sorcha Dallas, Glasgow, until Sat 17 Jan 0000.
A little jewel of a show can currently be found lodged below Argyle Street in
REVlEW SCULPTURE
FRANZISKA FURTER: SPARK EROSION Doggerfisher, Edinburgh, until Sat 24 Jan 00.
Swiss artist Franziska Furter here presents a challenging series of sophisticated conceptual works. The skin and bones of this exhibition are graphite drawings, PVC pebbles, and electrical tape sculptures, none too exciting or provocative in their own right. The sum, however, demonstrates a complex play with perceptions of medium, artifice, the so-called natural and the supernatural, and therein lies the power of this post-medium artist.
Furter’s characteristic drawings adorn the walls: they appear to depict aura-like hazes, galactical planes and post-cataclysmic landscapes. The viewer strives to recognise the scenes. As the accompanying literature suggests, the artist's works take as their starting point visual records of phenomena, dreams and visions, which the actual works themselves belie. These seemingly supernatural images at once suggest so much, and yet document little. A further stretch of our conception of drawing as a medium comes with Furter’s application of powdered graphite directly onto
the walls. Gunmetal grey bands in various widths wrap around the gallery space, at once offering a point of continuity and manipulating a disorientating effect.
A series of stone-like sculptures entitled ‘Erratic Pebbles’ sit on museum-like plinths. The stuff of geological dreams, Furter’s glazed pebbles are made of psychedelic sweetshop swirls of coloured PVC. Whatever their likenesses - philosopher’s stone or UFO fall-out - these brazenly artificial rocks only ever flirt with the reality of their geological nomenclature. Furter’s final sculptural work, a menacing cluster of seemingly organic black forms, lies hidden around a corner. Composed of large, thorny knots of tape, this parasitic intervention, entitled ‘From the corner of your eye' (pictured), remains familiar yet austere.
This exhibition presents a land where three simple materials can conjure supernatural tropes and threatening life forms. Yet the land remains source- less, exhibiting drawn and sculpted documents of non- existent originals. Furter painstakingly plays with her visitor’s ability to infer and fabulate. It’s an exhausting business, certainly, but ultimately a rewarding one. (Rosalie Doubal)
Glasgow. featuring works by a variety of local and international artists who share a common Interest in the Idea of repetition. Curated by Sorcha Dallas in her self- titled gallery. this exhibition stands head and shoulders above many group shows presented by larger. better-funded spaces.
The walls of the first room are covered with Claudia Wieser's decidedly lo-fi photocopied wallpaper. which completely transforms the space. A series of wonderful text works by Sue Tompkins. who has a fantastic ear (and eye) for the poetic and absurd. are juxtaposed with three metal framed chairs by Franz West. the seats of which are made from luminous strips of brightly coloured material. while Fiona Jardine‘s collage forms the room's central focus.
Next-door. the first space's black and grey walls are subtly echoed by Jardine's painted buttress and plinth. Prints by Bridget Riley. disarming works by John Wesley and two beautiful paintings by Alan Michael surround two more of West's chaws. this time looking less like sculptures that just happen to be chairs. and more like inviting places to sit. Several books of poetry by EE Cummings link back to Tompkins' work and enc0urage the viewer to linger. while Eva Berendes' woven screen sits ceremoniously off to one side. allowing us to peak through its coloured threads. This beautifully crafted and considered show showcases Dallas' considerable skills. (Liz Shannon)
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8—22 Jan 2009 THE LIST 81