www.list.co.uk/visualart
REVIEW PINHOLE PHOTOGRAPHY KATIE COOKE: BALANCING ACT Axolotl, Edinburgh, until Sat 31 Jul ●●●●●
This body of work is a concise but moving depiction of the photographer’s struggle through several courses of surgery, which may have left her unable to walk. The pinhole exposures correspond with the length of time Cooke was able to stand and represent a kind of pictorial diary as much as a thematic series. The beginning of the exhibition
brings to mind Victorian circus performers attempting death defying acts – with hints of instability and limited success – and is best viewed from a slight distance so the developing narrative becomes apparent. The selection concludes with two very moving pieces, ‘Gargoyle I & II’, which document the despair and fear of entering the surgical theatre after a previous failure. Cooke mentions that she has no memory of producing one of them, such was the stress on the body and mind at the prospect of never walking again.
The second half is a more positive exploration of technique and self, with beautifully ghosting imagery to balance the darkness inherent in the former. The ethereal quality of the photographs is due in part to long exposures from anything between one minute 30 seconds and 12 minutes, underlying the notion that even when we think we are standing still there is always movement. (Miriam Sturdee)
Visual Art
REVIEW PRINTS SCOTT MYLES: ELBA Glasgow Print Studio, until Sun 8 Aug ●●●●● In a series of silver and black prints, a sculpture ensemble graces the dance floor of a ballet studio: a pas de deux played out by two slim plinths, a glass object lifted by an office chair, and a stepladder achieving a grand-plié to uphold a petite object, form part of a new series of works by Dundonian artist Scott Myles.
the overall effect. Cerebral teasing is then employed by the text which spells HOT SAND and BOTH AND. Since 2002, Myles has been collecting posters by the late Cuban artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres on his visits to galleries and museums. After adding handwritten phrases, he mounts them in a perspex box and affixes one side to the wall and the other supported by a leg to the floor, allowing the viewer to see both sides of the work. Here the added text reads forwards and backwards.
Based in Glasgow, Myles’ practice is concerned with The final edition, this one responsible for the title of
the performative. His objects are never obsolete, but always suggest a ‘slice of now’. With past gone and future looming, the viewer is encouraged to dip into the journey, like opening the window shutter of a moving train. There is something about this dynamic relationship that makes his objects intriguing things to look at. In another series, a couple of fluorescent orange and
black text works show off the process of industrial printing, but with intentional marks outside of the demarcated printing area, over-printing, carefully considered ‘wrong’ strokes, and skilful smudges add to
the show, Elba, refers to the brand of office filing products that Myles used as a prototype to create large scale brightly coloured document wallets. The result is a collection of paper-sculpture replicas positioned against the wall like colour-field paintings.
The works are all strangely linked through rather absurd conceptual connections, but their accomplished quality draws you in and makes you want to visit the show twice to understand why you like it so much. Could it be the interior of the gallery, with its natural light and conducive exhibition layout that adds to the seduction? (Talitha Kotzé)
REVIEW PAINTING JOHN SQUIRE: NEFERTITI Henderson Gallery, Edinburgh, until Thu 19 Aug ●●●●●
Ex-Stone Roses guitarist John Squire describes this collection of work – his first in Scotland – as a ‘silent music project’, which clearly plays upon his desire to not return to making music and certainly not to go back to his old band. The title is a reference to the 1967 Miles Davis album, a record that influenced Squire during the making of these works. Based around uniform impressions made by lino printing blocks and completed by freehand oil painting, the pieces largely fall into two categories. Some, such as ‘Milestones’, ‘So What?’ and ‘Et Alors’ (most titles are at least paraphrased from those of Davis’ albums or songs), see these printing block shapes arranged in disjointed, fragmented fashion, while others (‘Frederick’, ‘Voodoo’, ‘Nefertiti’ itself) are presented in very neatly ordered rows and columns. In either case there’s a repetitive, determinedly mechanical effect created by the
process, as if Squire hammered out a steady, unflinching rhythm in one case and a more free-flowing jazz part in the other, but with printing blocks rather than a plectrum. The ‘music without music’ concept seems to be an in-joke, another implied reaction to the question he finds himself continually asked about whether the Roses will ever reform, but the painterly aspects of the work are also aesthetically very well-realised, bearing in mind that Squire is also one of the most notable record sleeve designers of the last two decades. (David Pollock)
22 Jul–5 Aug 2010 THE LIST 89