VisualArt
FILM NINA RHODE: FRIENDLY FIRE / CARA TOLMIE: READ THOU ART AND READ THOU SHALT REMAIN Dundee Contemporary Arts until Sun 31 Jul ●●●●●
If the world is a circle without a beginning and nobody knows where it really ends (‘laa-la-laaa-la’), as a zenned-out Hal David once wrote to a Burt Bacharach choon, then both Nina Rhode and Cara Tolmie’s worlds seem to be on a permanent loop in these wonderfully complementary shows. For Glasgow-based Tolmie, this comes via two films, one an actual loop of a Death Valley landscape viewed from a speeding car, the other a hand-crafted pop-up toy theatre made with a shoebox, some sticky-back plastic and some close-up cut-outs of a similarly mountainous mural and a window that blows hot and cold. Out of this comes a narrative both domestic and epic, set as it is in a room with a very special view.
In her first ever UK solo show, Berlin-based Rhode’s series of spinning wheels, cut-out shapes and endless mirror images suggests a playfully utopian infinity of touchy-feely exchanges by way of an interactive fairground attraction that is forever in motion without ever going through them. This major affair is book-ended by a large spinning wheel at the gallery entrance and the wonderful ‘Rudolf Beuys’ in the activity room, effectively a blackboard in motion that allows a creche-load of infants to make art. In the gallery itself, spinning harmonicas do a Terry Riley number, used fireworks are built into an organ shape, self-portraits through a looking glass take Rhode to Wonderland and a melted street bin captures the spirit of Berlin’s anti-capitalist riots of 2009. Best of all is ‘Gong’, in which a log hung between two stone- cutting steel discs can be swung to chime out a gloriously clattering ceremonial. (Neil Cooper)
PRINTS & PAINTINGS MICHELLE HANNAH: WHO WANTS TO LIVE FOREVER The Briggait, Glasgow, until Sun 10 Jul ●●●●● GROUP SHOW YOU SEEM THE SAME AS ALWAYS The Common Guild, Glasgow, until Sat 30 Jul ●●●●●
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SCULPTURE THOMAS HOUSEAGO: THE BEAT OF THE SHOW Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh until Sun 3 Jul ●●●●● The relationship between the title of the first museum-based show by Leeds-born sculptor Houseago and the work itself may not be immediately apparent. It’s taken from ‘Transmission’, the urgent 1979 post-punk anthem by Joy Division, who implored listeners to ‘Dance, dance, dance to the radio’. Wander through the sepulchral marble-white hemp, iron and wood structures possessing Inverleith’s ground floor, however, and something monumental grabs hold. It’s as if the imposing dome at the centre of a room littered with sawn-off remnants of trees or the bulbous giant leg in the next are paying tribute to the aftermath of some Ballardian dystopia, marking time until whatever happens next.
Can God create a rock so heavy that even He himself cannot lift it? If so, then the rock is now unliftable, limiting God’s power. But if not, then God is not omnipotent because he cannot create that rock. The work of Michelle Hannah is concerned with the world of unlimited power and its cultural vestiges. She tackles the great themes of metaphysics and spirituality through a highly idiosyncratic iconography and boldly, in all seriousness, attempts to go where other Glasgow artists do not brave to tread. Her magpie-like impulses clutch at the shiny gems of cultural mementos. Here the classic Highlander films and Queen soundtrack provide a backdrop for conjuring new motifs of authorial presence. The result is as deliciously acerbic as it is farcical.
In 1966 Yvonne Rainer made her first film, ‘Hand Movie’, while her body was confined to a hospital bed and unable to dance. She used only her right hand, each finger itself a performer moving gracefully. Since then a number of artists have captured the moving hand on camera and the impressions of fingers on paper. This exhibition showcases works ranging from Richard Serra’s films in the 1960s and Gabriel Orozco’s sculptures in the 1990s, to Hans-Peter Feldmann’s reproductions of the hand prints psychologist Charlotte Wolff’s made of well-known artists and poets in the 1930s to investigate the diagnostic significance of the hand. Recent works inspired by the artist’s hand include Claire Barclay’s delicate watercolours on paper, Olafur Eliasson’s machine-like hand factory, the unsettling come-hither movements of Douglas Gordon’s own hand, and David Shrigley’s wall drawing. Perhaps most beautiful of all is Kate Davis’ film entitled ‘You seem the same as always’ which mimics the deft hands of a ceramicist moulding a lump of clay.
If the concept of the show is deceptively simple, its execution is reassuringly charming. (Talitha Kotzé)
23 Jun–21 Jul 2011 THE LIST 113
The masks, the walk-through wooden gate and Like the tactic of the Black Bloc – where the
the giant fox-head in the basement further suggest a society getting back to basics. Either that or totems of some primitive cult warding off interlopers as they stand outside the house in preparation for Houseago’s forthcoming Edinburgh Art Festival show in an imposingly stately fashion. (Neil Cooper) fissure between the intention and the perceived conveys moral ambiguity – the performance on the opening night presented a figure dressed in recognisable black disguise as the anonymous vessel to channel the voice of the unseen omnipotent force disguising itself as ‘The One’. (Talitha Kotzé)