VisualArt
REVIEW SURREALIST/CONTEMPORARY NARCISSUS REFLECTED Fruitmarket, Edinburgh until Sun 26 Jun ●●●●●
Don McLean got it right in his 1972 song ‘Narcisissima’: ‘Narcissima, Narcisissma is the pride of Pomona/Pomona, Pomona says she looks like me/But she will look like you when I’m set free.’ Narcissus of Greek myth and his Freudian descendant have long been rich pickings for artist, writers and limerick scribes, it has only ever been a matter of courage to glance into that reflection at the same time.
This muscular and surprising exhibition, curated by noted scholar David Lomas, brings together those surrealist and contemporary artists who not only dared look down into the water but who then allowed amour-propre to take hold of their work, if only for a short period.
The opening space is contextualised by the influential
October 1943 issue of View magazine (with the brilliant strap line: ‘You Carry the Weight of Narcissus’). Those you would expect to be here are, and it’s great to marvel again at Cecil Beaton’s outstanding ‘The Narcissus of 67’ and his portrait of the prosperously vain Edward James alongside Claude Cahun’s stunning self portraits, and then there’s those amazing legs by that remarkable ‘maker of objects’ and tragic fetishist Pierre Molinier. Jean Cocteau’s seminal film Orphee is, of course, given house room, but it’s Willard Maas’ very rarely seen 1956 film Narcissus that is the real find here, with its preposterous smoking erect chimneys and street-comber chic.
Salvador Dali’s ‘Metamorphosis of Narcissus’ and Jess’s pencil on paper and paste masterpiece ‘Narkissos’ and their connected ephemeras rightly jostle for space in the remaining parts of the downstairs gallery.
Upstairs the myth is brought full circle with Pipilotti’s pleasingly vulgar audio video installation ‘Sip My Ocean’ and the globular genius of Yayoi Kusama’s ‘Narcissus Garden’. Narcissus is finally multiplied and dispersed and he will go to the ball. (Paul Dale)
REVIEW GROUP SHOW ART EXTRAORDINARY Collins Gallery, Glasgow until Sat 25 Jun ●●●●●
When French sculptor and painter Jean Dubuffet set out to identify art that could be viewed as free from aesthetic norms he labelled it L’Art Brut. This new exhibition at the Collins Gallery showcases works gathered on the same basis from the Art Extraordinary Trust and arranged by Joyce Laing, the gallery’s founder. ‘Outsider art’, as Dubuffet’s phrase is often translated, can show a range of unhampered creative acts, fantasy worlds and human confessions. Much of the work on display, like Dubuffet’s initial collection, is made by non- professionals, in particular people suffering from mental illnesses, and for some viewers the accompanying text of each artist’s life story will be more interesting than the works on display. However, there are stand out pieces, such as the work of Robert A with his impressively constructed drawings of mathematically schizoid planes and faces, layered with quotes and confessions. Jane Howie also deserves mention for her tackily glitter- penned but moving colour shapes, which are reminiscent of the symbolic designs found in Aboriginal art and are apparently created by the avowed psychic medium while in a trance-like state.
The show leaves a lasting impression of art’s positive ability to heal. (Alistair Quietsch)
136 THE LIST 26 May–23 Jun 2011
REVIEW PHOTOGRAPHY VICTORIA CLARE BERNIE: SLOW WATER Street Level Gallery, Glasgow, until Sun 5 Jun ●●●●●
A scientific orderliness contains Slow Water. Photographs, videos, digital drawings and animation made during a residency post at the Scottish Association for Marine Science Research Laboratory based near Oban are meticulously placed in contrast to the inherent dramatic qualities of water.
The images that are particularly arresting are those where Edinburgh-based Bernie has made subtle interventions to the photographed landscape. Superimposed over a series of close-up fast-moving bubbling and foaming images of water, is an eight panel digital drawing reminiscent of nautical charts tracing the landscape topography. A similar motif is used elsewhere in which her drawings show up like subtle spider webs spun between land and water.
Like a closed-circuit television view finder, a large- scale projection allows one to observe the activities of industry in the Scottish landscape. But here we are requested to invest time – the films are long and slow moving. In comparison, the image of Islas Orcadas is instant and timeless. It captures beautifully, through careful compositional consideration, the miniature shoreline of a frozen pond in the low light. (Talitha Kotzé)
REVIEW SCULPTURAL ART MARTIN BOYCE: NIGHT TERRACE – LANTERN CHAINS – FORGOTTEN SEAS – SKY The Modern Institute, Glasgow, until Sat 25 Jun ●●●●●
Triggered by fragments of colliding locations, a set of objects and textures in low light convey a dislocated landscape. Rust drips down like tears of blood from obsolete steel park benches. Table top surfaces and hanging wall panels are covered with illegible inscriptions. A powdery hue of dusk in the air is illuminated by the dim light of honeycombed lanterns. The scene transports, momentarily, to balmy nights with palm trees, long drinks and languid lovers. Then, instantaneously, to darkened corners with long lurking shadows in deserted urban blind spots after dark that smell of discharge and decay. Impressions are distilled in the fabric of the works, their gritty appearance rendered beautiful.
Glasgow-based Martin Boyce, nominated for this year’s Turner prize, makes work that writes poetry through objects. It is the atmosphere of the space that we inhabit that charm us first, then the individual pieces in the tableau. Here they appear prophetic, masculine and frigid, almost glowing with cool emotion. We approach and circle them with caution like an eagle closing in on its prey. (Talitha Kotzé)